317 



The teeth of the fossil elephants differ materially from 

 those of either of the recent species : their plates, in one of 

 the fossil species, are thinner, and, consequently, exist in 

 greater number than in the recent teeth. In the recent 

 teeth, even of the East-Indian species, there are seldom 

 more than ten or twelve plates brought into use at once ; 

 bnt, in the fossil teeth, they are frequently from eighteen to 

 twenty, and sometimes twenty -four, to be seen at the grind- 

 ing surface. Cuvier observes two other distinctive characters ; 

 that the lines of enamel are thinner End less crenulated in 

 the fossil than in the recent ; and that the width of the fossil 

 exceeds that of the recent in the proportion of eight to six. 

 It is therefore established that, at least, one species of 

 elephants existed in the former world, of which no analogous 

 animal is known in a recent state. The grinding surface of 

 the common fossil tooth is represented PL x. fig. 8. 



Many, and some rather ludicrous, mistakes have been 

 made respecting the fossil remains of elephants' teeth. One 

 of the plates of a tooth was considered, by Kundman, as the 

 petrified paw of a large baboon ; the flesh, nails, and veins 

 having been all supposed to be discoverable in it. The plates 

 are connected by the unorganized crusta petrosa, which 

 becoming disintegrated during the inhumation of the fossil, 

 occasions the separation of the plates ; the digitated pro- 

 cesses of which, in this instance, gave rise to the mistake as 

 to the existence of the fingers. 



An attention to this circumstance will, it is believed, 

 establish the existence of, at least, one more species of 

 fossil elephants than had been noticed by Cuvier. The exa- 

 mination of the teeth of both the recent species and of the 

 fossil species examined by Cuvier, shows that the dental 

 plates are entirely detached from each other, so that, on the 

 decomposition of the crusta petrosa, they separate ; in which 

 state they are frequently found. But in three different spe- 

 cimens which I possess, instead of the plates of enamel, 



