146 



The Missourium. 



Vol. VI. 



For the Farmers' Cabinet. 

 The 3Iissouriuin. 



At a meeting of the Academy of Natural Sciences, 

 held in October, 1841, 



" Dr. Goddard stated that he had examined the so 

 called ' Missourium Kochii,' and found it to be a skele- 

 ton composed of Mastodon bones, most of which ap- 

 peared to beloiiff to a single sot, many, liowever, hav- 

 ing been superadded, and others mended and glued to- 

 gether in a manner wholly erroneous. 



The following errors were especially noticed : 



Spine. — The spine presented the anomaly of 8cervical 

 vertehrtE ; and instead of 19 dorsal and 4 lumbar, had 

 23 dorsal and 10 lumbar vertebr;c, making the number 

 of bones in the spine too great by 11. The bones arti- 

 culated with the 2d and 4th ribs were cervical verte- 

 bra;. The spaces between the vertebra? were much 

 magnified by thick wooden blocks placed between them, 

 and the spine was curved upwards, so as to give an 

 exaggerated idea of the height of the animal. 



Ribs. — Those were redundant in number, and were 

 spread out as much as possible, so as to present the 

 appearance of a wide and flat chest. The 1st pair of 

 ribs were stuck on the bones of the shoulder, to resem- 

 ble clavicles — bones which the Mastodon does not pos- 

 sess. 



Head — The head was that of a Mastodon with the 

 top deficient, and a piece of an ethmoidal ? bone glued 

 on in front to resemble a snout. The tusks were dis- 

 torted laterally, so as to occupy a space of iS feet in 

 width. 



Scapula and ilia.— These having been deficient, were 

 very ingeniously pieced out with wood, glued over so 

 as to resemble bone. 



Feet. — The feet were ludicrously made up of carpal 

 and tarsal bones, and presented the wonderful anomaly 

 of 4 phalanges to each toe. 



Several other discrepancies were observed ; apart 

 from whicli Dr. G. considered the skeleton one of very 

 great interest." 



The most charitable conclusion is, 



that Dr. Goddard took not the opportunity to 

 examine sufficiently the bones of the Missou- 

 rium, and is therefore entirely unacquainted 

 with their peculiar construction and conforma- 

 tion. By what means did the Dr. elevate 

 himself, so as to be able to see that the nose 

 of the animal had been elongated by glueing 

 on a snout? he could not, surely, have seen 

 this while standing underneath the head at 

 the distance of 8 or 10 feet; and if, while 

 standing at the necessary elevation to ascer- 

 tain this fact, he had traversed the length of 

 the whole body and e.xamined the peculiarly- 

 constructed vertebrse of the back, he would 

 have seen, at a glance, that the for7n which 

 had been given it, namely, the curvature of 

 the spine upwards, must have been observed, 

 or their articulations would never have fitted 

 their peculiar position, so peculiar as, when 

 properly placed, to form the rise in the back, 

 of which the Dr. complains. And, while in 

 this position, he could have examined that 

 protuberance on the lower jaw, which Mr. 

 Koch considers peculiar to the Missourium; 

 remarking, that he had never seen a similar 

 one on any of the great number and variety 

 of fossils that he had disinterred or examined, 

 or heard of its existence amongst other natu- 

 ralists — such testimony, coming from such a 

 source. Dr. Goddard was bound to regard, and 

 to make it a main point of examination, but 

 it seems entirely to have been overlooked by 



him, if not treated with contempt. After the 

 Dr. has spent 14 years in geological research- 

 es, he will think it no more than his due, to 

 be treated with respect by his brethren of the 

 Academy of Natural Sciences, or I am much 

 mistaken. Is the Dr. one of those who be- 

 lieve that the ribs have been improperly 

 placed, so as to present the peculiarity of an 

 edgewise direction to the body? and did he 

 ever witness this form in any other animal, 

 the Mastodon, for instance, to say nothing of 

 their total incapacity to form the necessary 

 resistance to an animal of such magnitude; 

 their flatness of curve being also remarkable. 

 At which ends were the ribs — of which the 

 Dr. accuses Mr. Koch of having formed the 

 clavicles — affixed to the vertebrce? at the 

 wide or the narrow ends? neither of which 

 showed any suitable articulation : they were, 

 besides, more than double the thickness, and 

 wider at one end and narrower at the other, 

 than any other of the ribs in the body, being 

 also perfectly straight in their form — in short, 

 being precisely what they appear to be in the 

 engraving of the animal, as exhibited in the 

 last number of the Farmers' Cabinet, and far 

 enough removed from the semblance of ribs 

 in ant/ form or shape. Mr. Koch admitted 

 that the top of the skull had been removed, 

 that the peculiar structure of it might be ex- 

 amined ; the portions were carefully pre- 

 served and were exhibited for this purpose, 

 and on replacing, they would still form a 

 structure far removed from that of the Mas- 

 todon, or of any other animal that had ever 

 been discovered or exhibited ; but of this Dr. 

 Goddard knew nothing, as he had not the 

 means of re-uniting them. Were the feet — 

 which the Dr. says " were ludicrously made 

 up of carpal and tarsal bones" — composed of 

 real bone ? Then Mr. Koch must have been 

 endowed with a sagacity and capability far 

 above any of his traducers, to be able to form 

 them of pieces of bones collected from other 

 animals, and so exactly to adjust them — could 

 Dr. Goddard take the bones of the fingers of 

 the human hand and form perfect joints un- 

 less they had originally belonged to the same 

 subject? The lower jaw has been consid- 

 ered by some of the Professors to be too short 

 for the upper jaw, and has, therefore, been 

 rejected by them as not having originally be- 

 longed to the animal, but the Dr. seems will- 

 ing to retain it, coming, however, to the same 

 conclusion by lengthening the snout! On 

 this subject, Mr. Koch remarked, " I must 

 certainly have found a lower jaw with the 

 animal, for it is well known that this part of 

 the skeleton retains its form and substance 

 longer than any other, while buried in the 

 earth. Now, what could I have done with 

 it? it is not likely that I would part with 

 what I valued beyond any price, and for 



