142 To Readers and Correspondenls. 



ta every animal fundions appropriate to the condition of its existence. The ox has 

 cloven feet, which spread, and give liim a better support when he treads, and thus ena- 

 bles him to seek his ibod in the marsliy lands, which the small and solid footed horse does 

 not venture uixm. The voluminous tusks of the elepliant and mastodon, are given to 

 them in like manner, fur coaservative purposes. So are our own teeth to ourselves : but 

 if every unconformable case of dentition, every instance of teeth protruding in the wrong 

 places, or running obliquely to the direction of the jaws; or, if every particular contraction 

 or expansion of the jaws themselves, and every varying external appearance, shall be 

 deemed of sidiicient importance to constilule a new genus or a new species, every in- 

 dividual W'ili be a distinct genus, and classification will eventually become a branch of 

 mathematics. If we are bound to treat this occasional deviation in the dentition of the 

 mastodon in this raanncr, what will be made of our own race, when the present surface 

 of the earth shall be added to the number of the ancient geological formations, and our 

 bones be disinterred by some future race of inlellectual beings? 



At the conclusion of Dr. Hays' address, he handed in to the president a paper contain- 

 ing, as he expressed, tlie substance of tlie remarks : a committee was formed to e.xaraine 

 it, and report \\\v.tn it for publication. At the head of this committee was placed his par- 

 ticular friend ; a preconcerted arrangement often very convenient, both for good and for 

 evil, and tliorefore acquiesced in sometimes. As this address was a somewhat unusual 

 procedure before the American Philosophical Society, and as it involved a matter of some 

 interest in f ssil zoology, the few naturalists who were present looked with some atten- 

 tion to the future proceedingsof that committee. If tliere had existed any real diffrrence 

 of opinion between the lecturer on geology, and Dr. Isaac Hays, the subject was now in 

 the hands of a committee of the American Philo.sophical Society, and the parties (or the 

 present, were certainly bouiiil to leave it there. We shall see how far this decorum was 

 observeil by one oi' the parties. Dr. Hays's address was delivered on Friday, the aOtli 

 May: on the 24th, the ibllowing anonymous article signed X, appeared in the National 

 Gazette : — 



" It is with great pleasure wo learn, that some of the scientific investigations of our 

 lamented Godman, which liad been incidentally alluded to in a recent pofiular lecture 

 on geology in this city, have been triumphantly sustained and vindicated in a lecture 

 delivered before the American Philosophical Society, a few evenings since, by his friend 

 Dr. Hays. It was asserted in the geological lecture, that ' the new genus Tetracaulodon 

 Mastodontoides {of Godman) must be abandoned, as the only distinctive character on 

 which it rested, was the presence of milk tusks in the lower jaw, which was common to 

 various species of mastodon, before the individuals had reached their full growth.' It is 

 believed that Dr. Hays satisfied every member present, that Dr. Godman's animal was 

 different from any other heretofore described; in corroboration of which he produced 

 from the splendid collection of the society, tw'o of the largest jaws, both of which were 

 possessed of the socket supposed to exist only in the young. The good feeling which 

 prompted the defence of tlie scientific character of a departed friend, has been amply 

 rewar<led in the investigation of the subject by the hrillianl discovery of four new spe- 

 cies of this extraordinary family, among the fossil bones of the rich collection of the so- 

 <^-iely, and that of Mr. VVelherill. A description of these was presented the same eve- 

 ning to the society, intended for publication in their transactions, and it is believed that 

 the public will be very shortly favoured with it, illustrated by engravings ol'tho different 

 species. " X." 



The palpable misstatements contained in this article, (toidd not escape any one in- 

 terested in llio subject. Instead of Dr. Isaac Hays's address being a*" triumphant vindica- 

 tion," it was an unequivocal abanilonment of the new genus: it was disingenuously 

 concealed, that the two largest jaws were the identical jaws presented by the geological 

 lecturer to his class; and as to the hrillianl discovery of four new species, it had no ex- 

 istence out of romance. It was not worthy of being distinguished I'rom amidst the mass 

 of disgusting pufS which force their way into the public papers, but for one circumstance, 

 which disclosed to the lecturer on geology, that it was also intended to wound him. He 

 soon after its publication, tral. Ihe romplele proof, that this anonymous publication, origi- 

 nally contained very hostile allusions to him, which had been snhscqucntly expunged; 

 that the composition had received some a.ssislance from, and had been given to the press, 

 bv the very individual, bound in honour and duly, lo disCDUiUciiance its production, viz. 

 The chairman of the committee of the American Philosophical Society, charged with the 

 corviiUcralion of the subject. 



That Dr. Isaac Hriys was the author of that disingenuous puff; the writer of this narra- 

 tive does not assert, not having the proof of it ; that is a secret between his friend and 

 him.<<elf It i.s hardly lo be supposed, that any one would take the trouble to draw up 

 Buch a paper, without a prospect of deriving some supposed advantage from iL The un- 

 expected discovery of the conduct of the chairman of the conmiillee having opened the 

 eyes of the lecturer, to the combination fiirming against him, he .sent the fullowing an- 

 swer to X., which was publinhcd in (he .Natioiiai Gazelle of Alay 26, 1831. 



