VOL. LVin.] fHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. 505 



banks of the Ohio, in North America. The French academicians became pos- 

 sessed of some specimens of them ; and having compared them with the bones 

 of real elephants, and with those which had been brought to France from Si- 

 beria, and with similar bones found in various other parts, determined, with an 

 appearance of probability on their side, that they were elephants' bones. 



M. Buffon gives us the following account of this decision : ' All this put to- 

 gether leaves us no longer any room to doubt, that those tusks (defenses), and 

 those large bones (ossemens), are truly the tusks and bones of the elephant; 

 M. Sloane had said this, but had not proved it. M. Gmelin has likewise said 

 so, and more positively; and he has given us some curious facts concerning this 



question ; but M. Daubenton appears to be the first who has put the 



matter beyond doubt, by accurate measures, by exact comparisons, and by rea- 

 sons founded upon the great knowledge which he has acquired in the science of 

 comparative anatomy." 



From the first time that Dr. H. learned this part of natural knowledge, it ap- 

 peared to him to be very curious and interesting; inasmuch as it seemed to con- 

 cur with many other phenomena, in proving that in former times some astonish- 

 ing change must have happened to this terraqueous globe; that the highest 

 mountains, in most countries now known, must have lain for many ages in the 

 bottom of the sea ; and that this earth must have been so changed with respect 

 to climates, that countries which are now intensely cold, must have been for- 

 merly inhabited by animals which are now confined to the warm climates. 



Some time in the last spring, having been informed that a considerable quan- 

 tity of elephants' teeth had been brought to the Tower, from America; and be- 

 ing desirous of procuring some information concerning them. Dr. H. waited on 

 Mr. Bodington, to know the particulars, and to beg leave to examine them. 

 He obligingly gave him a verbal account of their having been brought from the 

 banks of the Ohio; and on the following day sent him one tusk, and one grinder, 

 as specimens for his examination. The tusk indeed seemed so like that of an 

 elephant, that there appeared no room for doubt. Dr. H. showed it to his bro- 

 ther, and he thought so too : but being particularly conversant with comparative 

 anatomy, at the first sight he said that the grinder was certainly not an elephant's. 

 From the form of the knobs on the body of the grinder, and from the disposition 

 of the enamel, which makes a crust on the outside only of the tooth, as in a 

 human grinder, he was convinced that the animal was either carnivorous, or of 

 a mixed kind. This made Dr. H. think that the tusk itself was not a real ele- 

 phant's tooth : for Mr. Bodington had told him that there were many grinders, 

 as well as tusks, and that they were all similar to those specimens which he had 

 sent to him. And some time after, when Dr. H. went to the Tower, and ex- 

 amined the whole collection which had been sent over from the Ohio, he saw 



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