278 



TEETH OF THE ELEPHANT. 



of transverse perpendicular plates, consisting each of a 

 body of dentine, coated by a layer of enamel, e, and tliis 

 again by the less dense bone-like substance, c, which fills 

 the interspaces of the enamelled plates, and here more 

 especially merits the name of "cement," since it binds 

 together the several divisions of the crown before they 

 are fully formed and iinited by the confluence of their 

 bases into a common body of dentine. As the growth 

 of each plate begins at the summit, they remain detached, 

 and like so many separate teeth or denticules, until their 

 base is completed, when it becomes blended with the bases 

 of contiguous plates to form the common body of the 

 crown of the complex tooth, from which the roots are 

 next developed. 



Afric(ni. Asiatic. Elcphan priinUjenius. 



MOLAR TEETH OF ELEPHANTS AND THE .SIBERIAN .MA.MMOTH. 



