588 PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [aNNO 10/ 1. 



bone of the toe, which is 4^ inches round, and 2^ long; to whch also is 

 joined another small bone to make up the extremity: in weight both §iiij. 



The two remaining bones of the metatarsus are thin, broad and irregular ; 

 the first is 24- inches broad, and 2|- long ; weighing each §i. to which also 

 adheres a small bone, as in the former toe, but less. The second and last of 

 the metatarsus on the inside is two inches broad, and as much long, thin Hke 

 the former, having a small protuberance adjoined instead of a toe. The bones 

 of the 4th toe weigh §if^, and the 5th fj. 



I once designed to have compared more particularly the bones now described, 

 with those of Tentzelius* and Dr. Moulins:-}- but since both these treatises have 

 been already communicated to the R. S. and I doubt not are in the hands of 

 most of the honourable members thereof; and since I have already insisted 

 largely upon these, I shall only put you in mind in few words, that Tentzelius 

 tells his friend, viz. that in digging in a hill near Erfurt in Germany, for a 

 fine whtte sand, there were found several huge bones, first mistaken for a 

 giant's; but on trial, and the perusal of Dr. Moulins' treatises, known to be 

 the bones of an elephant : and that among the rest there were found the head 

 42 inches diameter ; two tusks 2^- spans round, and 8 feet long ; four grinders, 

 each 12lb. the humerus 4 feet 24^ spans; the vertebrae of the neck, each 4 spans 

 in circumference, and 2 spans high; the ossa innominata 24- feet long; with 

 the head of the femur inserted in the acetabulum, and part of the tibia 22 

 inches at the largest, and 1 7 at the smallest part. That they were obliged to 

 dig 24 feet deep, before they could get out the head ; that the bones lay in 

 such a posture, as betoken its being overwhelmed, or having had great 

 strugglings while dying ; viz. the left fore foot stretched forward to the side 

 of the head, which lay toward the north, the right inclining backward under 

 the body ; the left hind foot drawn in toward the body, and the right distorted 

 here and there, out of its natural posture. From all which he concludes this 

 to have been the largest elephant that ever was seen in Europe; and that it 

 could have been brought thither by no other means than the flood, both from 

 the preternatural posture of the body, and from the different strata of earth 

 lying above it, without the least sign of having been digged to bury it. 



♦ Vol. iv. p. 218 of this Abridgment. 



f Anatomical Account of an Elephant accidentally burnt in Dublin, by Allen Moulins, M. D. 

 4to. 1682. 



