381 



The bones of the feet of one kind required to be classed with the heads 

 of one of these genera, and the bones of the feet of the other kind with the 

 head of the other genus. But how was this separation to be effected ? Did 

 the feet with three toes belong to the head with tusks, and those with 

 two toes to the heads without tusks, or should they be disposed in a con- 

 trary combination ? 



After much perplexing investigation, he derived considerable aid by 

 meeting with a head without tusks, not larger than that of a hare, and 

 fortunately with a didactyle foot of the same proportions. Thus assisted, 

 he proceeded in his comparisons, and was at last able to determine that 

 the didactyle feet belonged to the Anoplotherium, and the tridactyle to the 

 Pal&otherium. 



M. Cuvier observes, that the first information to be obtained, in the 

 examination of the remains of a fossil animal, is with respect to its grind- 

 ing teeth. By these may be ascertained whether the animal was car- 

 nivorous or herbivorous ; and if the latter, the order of herbivorous ani- 

 mals to which it belonged, may even, thereby, be determined, to a certain 

 extent. 



A superficial examination soon showed him, that almost all the ani- 

 mals found in the plaster-of-paris quarries, round Paris, have the grinders 

 of the herbivorous pachydermata ; those of the upper jaw possessing a 

 crown formed of two or three simple crescents, succeeding to each other; 

 a configuration whicb may be seen to exist in the rhinoceros and the da- 

 man, Hyrax, Linn, two genera of the pachydermata. The ruminating ani- 

 mals^ indeed, have also grinders composed of two or three crescents; 

 but their crescents are double, and have each four lines of enamel ; 

 whilst in the pachydermata they are simple, and have only two lines. 

 These remarks were confirmed by the appearances yielded, in these fos- 

 sils, by the upper grinders ; their outer lace having three projecting ribs, 

 which divide it into two shallow depressions ; their crowns are square, 

 and have peculiar inequalities. These characters serve to remove^ de- 



