ANOPLOTHERIUM. 



1-23 



Artabotrys, Xylopia, and Guatteria. Of these there 

 are forty-seven species. The genera are all trees or 

 shrubs, and mostly tropical. The fruit of the Anona 



ANONA SOTAMOSA. it, the flower; h, fruit ; c, the same in 

 section, showing the position of the seeds ; d, seed ; e, the same 

 in section, showing the position of the embryo. 



are estimable ; and, under the name of Custard 

 Apple, will be more fully described. The Ethiopian 

 pepper of the shops is the fruit of the Uvaria ; and in 

 South America the bark of the Xylopia is used for 

 cordage. 



ANOPLOTHERIUM. A genus of extinct 

 animals, belonging' to the order Pachyderntnta, which 

 is found exclusively in the fossil state. Nothing, 

 perhaps, can show more fully the perfection and pre- 

 cision to which the study of comparative anatomy has 

 been brought, by the indefatigable researches of the 

 great naturalist Cuvier, than his discovery of various 

 extinct genera and species of animals, by the appli- 

 cation of those invariable laws upon which organised 

 animal bodies are formed. By the application of 

 these laws, the skilful comparative anatomist is enabled 

 to re-construct, as it were, the whole animal, and to 

 form certain and indisputable conclusions as to their 

 habits and mode of living ; thus bunging into view 

 beings which have long ceased to be inhabitants of 

 this earth : many of which are distinguished as much 

 by their remarkable forms, gigantic stature, and 

 massive proportions, as by peculiarities of structure, 

 to which nothing analogous at present exists. 



These results being so remarkable, a concise ac- 

 count of the principles upon which such conclusions 

 are founded may not be considered uninteresting. 

 The fundamental law upon which every other de- 

 pends is, that every organised being must of necessity 

 be considered as a whole, possessing a peculiar 

 system of its own ; every part of which is in strict 

 accordance with each other, and all concurring to 

 produce a certain definitive action by a reciprocal 

 reaction. No change can possibly take place in 

 any of these parts without producing corresponding 

 changes in the others ; and consequently each part 

 taken separately exhibits and enables us to ascertain 

 all the others. Thus an animal whose stomach is so 

 constituted as to enable it to digest recent flesh only, 

 will have every part of his frame strictly in accord- 

 ance with this arrangement. A peculiar system of 

 dentition must prevail, as the teeth must be sharp- 

 edged in a greater or less degree, as they have flesh 

 more or less exclusively to divide ; and their bases 

 will be solid, according to the quantity and size of the 

 bones they will have to break. The jaws must be 

 powerful, and the condyles of a peculiar form. These, 

 however, would be of but little service to the animal, 

 unless it had claws for seizing and tearing its prey. 

 These, again, absolutely require a peculiar con- 

 struction of the phalanges, joined to a facility of rota- 

 ti in in the fore arm, and analogous changes in the 

 humerus. The whole system of their organs of 



motion for pursuing and overtaking their prey must 

 also be strictly conformable to the other parts. On 

 the other hand, it is perfectly evident, that all hoofed 

 animals must be herbivorous, as their feet afford no 

 means whatever of seizing their prey ; accordingly 

 we find their masticating and digestive organs cor- 

 respond with this peculiarity, their teeth having flat 

 unequal crowns suited to the bruising and grinding 

 their food, and every other part agrees strictly with 

 their peculiar system. 



Such are the principles which Cuvier applied to 

 the investigation of the bones found in the plaster- 

 quarries near Paris ; and he quickly, to his astonish- 

 ment, perceived that there were many genera and 

 species among them which had no living antitypes. 

 On those immutable laws which nature has prescribed 

 to living beings, he proceeded to reconstruct these 

 ancient animals, and a creation, long since extinct, 

 rose to his view. Nothing, he says, can express his 

 pleasure as he perceived, on the discovery of each 

 peculiar character, the consequences he had pre- 

 dicted gradually and successively unfold themselves. 

 Thus he found the feet correspond with the pecu- 

 liarities announced by the teeth, and the teeth, ii 

 like manner, with those indicated by the feet. All 

 the other bones proved also conformable to the 

 judgment previously formed by him from the con- 

 sideration of other parts. Among these he found one 

 genus distinguished by two characters unknown in 

 any other animal, viz., by the teeth being in a con- 

 tinuous series without any intervening gap (a structure 

 observable in man alone), and also by having two 

 toes, whose metacarpal and metatarsal bones are 

 separate on their whole length. From the circum- 

 stance of the canine teeth being short and similar to 

 the other incisors, he gave it the name of Ano/>/o- 

 t/it.-rhim, or a beast without weapons. It has six 

 incisors in each jaw, one canine, and seven molars ou 

 each side, both above and below. The first three 

 molars are compressed, the four others in the upper 

 jaw are squared with transverse crests, and a small 

 cone between them in the lower jaw ; they form a 

 double crescent, with a neck at the base. The head 

 of this animal was of an oblong form ; and there is no 

 appearance indicative of the existence of a proboscis. 

 They are divided into three sub-genera, the anoplo- 

 theria, properly so called, the xiphodus, and the 

 dichobuner, whose distinctions are founded upon 

 slight differences in the crescents and other parts of 

 the teeth. Of the first division, the Anoplothcrium 

 commune was about the size of a wild boar, but much 

 longer in the body, and had a tail of enormous length, 

 equalling, if not surpassing, the body ; and there is 

 reason to believe that its thickness was also very 

 considerable. There is also another species, a little 

 smaller, called by the Baron An. secundarhim. There 

 is but one Arphodon known ; it appears to have been 

 very slender and delicately formed, much like the 

 gn/.clle ; to this the name of An. gracile has been 

 given. 



Of the last divi>ion, the Dichobuncs anoplothcrlum 

 Icporinum is about the size of the hare; and besides 

 its sub-generic characters, it is distinguished from the 

 two former divisions by its having two small and 

 slender toes on each foot at the sides of the two great 

 toes. Two other species have been observed, which 

 appear to have been very small animals. 



These remains have 'hitherto been found only in 

 strata, belonging exclusively to the Eocene period of 



