176 



FEL1D.E. 



when the mouth was closed, conjecturally restored the 

 lost canine by one having the peculiar proportions of those 

 previously referred to the Ursus cultridens. 



Dr. Kaup, on the other hand, in his excellent illustrations 

 of the fossils from Epplesheim in the Darmstadt Collection, 

 lays stress on the obvious differences which the falciform 

 canines present, as compared with the known Bears and 

 feline animals ; pointing out, in his comparison of them 

 with the latter, that the compressed canines had neither 

 the grooves nor the two ridges which characterize the 

 canines in the genus Felis, and that no carnivorous quad- 

 ruped had the enamelled crown of the canine so long, or 

 its concave edge so serrated. The Darmstadt Professor 

 dwells on the resemblance in these respects between the 

 falciform canines in question, and the teeth of the Megalo- 

 saurus ; and concludes by proposing to form a distinct 

 genus, Machairodus, for the extinct species to which these 

 singular teeth belonged.* 



The author of the article Machairodus in the Penny 

 Cyclopaedia has cited my reasons for rejecting the idea of the 

 Saurian nature of that genus ; the proof of its belonging 

 to the Mammalian class being afforded by the specimen 

 figured at 5, p. 244, vol. xiv. of that valuable work, " which 

 shews that the tooth was originally lodged in a socket, and 

 not anchylosed to the substance of the jaw, and that the 

 fang was contracted and solidified by the progressive 

 diminution of a temporary formative pulp, and did not 

 terminate in an open conical cavity, like the teeth of all 

 known Saurians, which are lodged in sockets." The 

 article concludes by the remark, that " we are not without 

 existing Ruminants with very long canine teeth in the 

 upper jaw, with serrations on their edges, though not so 



* Description d'Ossem. Foss. de Darmstadt, 4to. 2de cahier, p. 28. 



