5B4 



that of tapir, and to that of rhinoceros, by the form of Its grinders. 

 That it was an herbivorous animal is certain ; and that it belonged to 

 the order of pachydermata is confirmed, as will be seen, by the struc- 

 ture of its feet. 



The glenoid cavity, for the articulation of the jaw, had a flat surface, 

 as in that of the tapir ; and as, in the tapir, this cavity was bounded 

 backward by a transverse vertical plate : a peculiarity, however, exists, 

 with respect to this plate; for that of the tapir has its internal edge more 

 forward, and the external more backward ; whilst in this animal it is 

 exactly contrary. 



In the horse this plate is very short, and is from right to left. In the 

 ruminating animals it is more projecting and entirely transverse ; or, as 

 in the tapir, more drawn back to the outer edge. It makes less pro- 

 jection in the hog : that of the rhinoceros is not behind, but at the 

 inner edge of the glenoid cavity ; and the elephant has none. It ap- 

 pears that no known animal has the glenoid cavity formed like that of 

 the pal<eotherium. 



By the most ingenious inferences from the form and the number of 

 bones constituting the nostrils, and from other characters, he was led to 

 conclude that this animal possessed a kind of snout, or trunk, resembling 

 that of the tapir. Judging of the size of the first animal of this genus, 

 whose remains he discovered, he concluded that it must have been less 

 than the tapir, and nearly as large as a common hog ; and directed by 

 the proportions which its remains bore to those of other species, which he 

 afterwards met with, he designated this species as Palaotherium medium. 



From an astragalus, and from several other bones remarkable for their 

 thickness, he decidedly made out the existence of another species, rather 

 less than the P. medium, but which he conceived it right to name P* 

 crassum. 



By his investigations, M. Cuvier discovered the fossil remains of another 

 animal, differing in no respect but in being more than double its size, from 

 the P. medium. This animal, which he supposes must have been of the 



