388 



blunt ; but made a little hooked forwards, and is placed a little lower, on 

 the outer edge, than the small trochanter is on the inner. Other charac- 

 ters observable in this bone correspond with some which exist in that of the 

 ass and of the tapir, but mostly with those of the former. He was however 

 enabled to determine that this os femoris did not belong to either of these 

 animals ; but was satisfied that it belonged to one of the species of the 

 genus Pal&otherium ; and, from its size, to P. medium or P. crassum. 



The specimens of the remains of the Pal&otherium are too incomplete 

 to have supplied their learned and indefatigable investigator with much 

 satisfactory information with respect to its vertebral column. From de- 

 tached points of information, M. Cuvier has however been able to deter- 

 mine, that the palseotherium had its neck longer in proportion than the hog 

 and the tapir, and that it approached those ruminants with a neck of a 

 moderate size, and with a slight form, such as the stags and antelopes: 

 such, at least, appears to have been the case with P. minus. From a 

 portion of a tail, composed of five vertebrae, and which seems to have 

 belonged to P. medium, it appears that the tail in these animals was not 

 so long in proportion as in the Anoplotheria. 



The skeleton of the Anoplolherium points out twelve or thirteen as the 

 number of ribs belonging to this genus, and those of the Palaotherium 

 sixteen: two numbers which suit well with the zoological affinities of the 

 two genera ; since the first agrees with that of the ruminants and pigs,, 

 which have thirteen or fourteen, whilst the other suits with the tapir,, 

 rhinoceros, and horse, which have eighteen and nineteen. 



At Pantin a specimen was found, containing great part of the skeletort 

 of an animal, which was supposed by the workmen, and reported by the 

 public papers, to have been that of a ram ; but when it was seen by 

 Cuvier, on its being presented to the Museum, he discovered that it was 

 of the Paltfotherium minus. This skeleton considerably confirmed the 

 conjectures which he had already formed respecting the fossil remains of 

 this genus. 



In this skeleton he discovered sufficient of the lower jaw to observe the 



