58 MR. A. L. ADAMS ON THE OSTEOLOGY OF 
considered on the score of dimensions and characters, seem to go hand in hand with 
these young bones. 
VIII. Femur. 
The differences between the femurs of the African and Asiatic Elephants have been 
pointed out by Mr. Busk in respect of their connexions with the Maltese forms’; the 
only question becomes how far a series of specimens of the African Elephant would 
substantiate the characters represented by the only available instance in the British 
Museum. The prominence or otherwise of ridges dependent on age must of course be 
always taken into account, and also the length of time the individual has been in 
captivity. I apprehend, moreover, that the age for the consolidation of the epiphyses 
(of the extremities in particular) is much influenced by conditions of life. The African 
Elephant’s skeleton (7084) in the British Museum, although that of a full-grown 
animal, with the penultimate true molar in wear, has the epiphyses of the long bones 
detachable, although the individual is said to have been killed in its native haunts ; 
the same obtains in the case of the Chuny ; indeed it would seem that even in a wild 
state the consolidation is not ordinarily completed until the last true molar cuts the 
gum ; consequently the bones I am now about to describe must in general be considered 
as belonging to aged individuals. 
The specimens of femurs of adult Elephants in my collection seem to me to be 
capable of division into two series. 
A Series—The larger is represented by several specimens, differing somewhat in 
dimensions, as follows :— 
Specimen @ showed a portion of the upper part of a right femur found in Mnaidra 
Gap, the head of which gave a circumference of 15 inches, with a breadth across the 
latter and great trochanter of 9°5 inches. Here the epiphyses were completely con- 
solidated. 
Specimen 4, right side, from the same situation, was found entire, but unfortunately 
came to be disturbed and broken before I could take the exact length of the bone, of 
which the head and lower condyles are shown in Pl. XI. figs. 5 & 6; however, I sur- 
mised it may have been about 33 inches, or, in other words, of almost the precise mea- 
surements of that of the Sumatran Elephant in the British Museum. Thus the diameter 
of the head (fig. 5) was 4:2 inches, least transverse diameter of the shaft 2-9, antero- 
posterior diameter at the same point 2°3, least circumference 9, transverse diameter of 
head with trochanter 9, transverse diameter at the line of the lower epiphyses (fig. 6) 5:8, 
transverse diameter of condyles 5, middle of patellar sulcus 2:4 inches. 
Specimen c. The next, as regards dimensions, are the portions of right and left 
femurs, of evidently the same individual, shown in Pl. XIV. figs. 1 & 2. The head of 
fig. 2 is not shown in the Plate; and the lower condyles and portion of the shaft of fig. 1 
were not discovered. Close to the above lay the entire tibia (Pl. XV. fig. 1), with its 
‘ Trans. Zool. Soc. vi. p. 248. 
