222 PKOBOSCIDIA. 



This lower jaw shows also that the outer contour of 

 one ramus meets that of the other at a more open angle 

 than in the African or Asiatic Elephant, and that the 

 symphysis itself (s), though acute at this period of life, is less 

 prolonged ; in illustration of which the figure of the lower 

 jaw of the Asiatic Elephant at a corresponding age with the 

 fossil, is added. In the older Mammoths the symphysis 

 becomes obtuse ; were it otherwise, the prolonged alveoli 

 of the fully developed tusks would have interfered with 

 the motion of the lower jaw. 



The difference between the extinct and existing species of 

 Elephant, in regard to the structure of the teeth, has been 

 more or less manifested by every specimen of fossil elephanfs 

 tooth that I have hitherto seen from British strata, and those 

 now amount to upwards of three thousand. Very few of 

 them could be mistaken by a comparative anatomist for 

 the tooth of an Asiatic Elephant, and they are all obviously 

 distinct from the peculiar molars of the African Elephant. 



Cuvier, who had recognised a certain range of variety 

 in the structure of the numerous teeth of the Mammoth 

 from continental localities, found nevertheless, that the 

 molars of the fossil Elephant were broader in proportion 

 to their length or antero-posterior diameter than in the 

 existing species ; that the transverse plates were thinner 

 and more numerous in the fossil molars than in those of the 

 Indian Elephant ; that a greater number of plates en- 

 tered into the formation of the grinding surface of the 

 tooth, and that the lines of enamel were less festooned ; 

 but to this character there are exceptions, especially in the 

 large molars of aged individuals. 



The development, progressive complication, and suc- 

 cession of the molar teeth, obeyed the same laws in the 

 ancient Mammoth, as in the existing Elephant ; it may, 



