286 



PETRIFACTIONS AND THEIR TEACHINGS. CHAP. III. 



gested that some of the bones in the British Museum which 

 I had regarded as femora, were in all probability humeri, and 

 the observations of a correspondent 

 are quoted by him in corroboration 

 of this opinion ; but no one who 

 had given due attention to the sub- 

 ject, would for a moment admit 

 the validity of the reasons adduced 

 by the Hunterian Professor. 



The question, however, is now 

 decided by the discovery of a bone 

 in the Wealden of the Isle of 

 Wight, associated with other re- 

 mains of the Iguanodon, which is 

 undoubtedly a humerus, and pos- 

 sesses all the essential characters of 

 the principal bone of the anterior 

 extremity of a gigantic saurian ; 

 most fortunately, too, it can be 

 proved to belong to the Iguanodon ; 

 for it is identical with a well-pre- 

 served, but much distorted and 

 smaller bone, in the Maidstone 

 specimen, which is figured in my 

 Memoir in "Philos. Trans." 1841, 1 

 with the remark that " it probably 

 belongs to the brachial extremity ; 

 it is imbedded near the two meta- 

 carpals, but I have not been able 

 to determine its character satisfac- 

 torily." The relatively very small 

 size of this bone appeared to me an 

 insuperable objection to the regard- 

 ing it as a humerus, and I thought it more probable that it 

 belonged to the fore-arm, and was possibly the radius. In the 



proceed to the consideration of the large bones with which the femur is 

 articulated." Prof. Owen, Brit Assoc. Reports, p. 135. 



The reader will perceive how completely the Hunterian Professor was 

 at fault ; and that the attempt to show that my interpretation of the 

 colossal bones in the Case before us was erroneous, utterly failed. 



i Philos. Trans." PI. VIII. fig. 5. 



LIGN. 60. 



HUMERTJS OF THE IGUANODOH j 



POSTERIOR ASPECT. 



(& nat. size.) 



