66 MR. A. L. ADAMS ON THE OSTEOLOGY OF 
If this should turn out to be the case, at all events the last described is more like the 
Asiatic ; but perhaps the left is never so broad as the right. 
XI. Carpus. 
Scaphoid.—In an articulated skeleton of a youthful Asiatic Elephant in the Mu- 
seum of the Army Hospital, Netley, the first true molar is coming into wear, and 
about 1 foot of the incisor is protruding beyond the alveolus. The height of the 
animal seems to have been about 6°5 feet at the shoulder. The scaphoid in this 
instance shows distinctly the two points of ossification separated by a central mass of 
cartilage, the length ofthe bone being 2°8 inches. Again, in a disarticulated Ceylon 
Elephant (707h, B.M.), showing the last milk-molar in full wear, and a computed 
height of 5 feet at the withers, we find precisely the same condition of the scaphoid, 
which is 2°6 inches in length. Thus, whilst showing the unossified stage in the recent 
animal, they offer comparisons in this respect with the Maltese scaphoids, which, 
although of the same dimensions, show no traces whatever of the foetal condition. A 
comparison between the same bone in the African and Asiatic furnishes the following 
data, at least as far as a single instance of the former enables me to determine. The 
outlines are different as regards the contour of the posterior border, which forms a 
hog’s-back outline in the African and Mammoth, and is more or less perpendicular in 
the Asiatic, where it is relatively narrower at its middle. Again, the radial facet, as 
shown by Blainville’, is nearly perpendicular in the latter and Mammoth, and nearly 
horizontal in the African. The trapezoidal and magnal facets form a triangle in the 
African, and are slightly concave. In the Asiatic and Mammoth the same are apparent 
on the magnal aspect; but the entire articular surface is quadrilateral and slightly 
convex about the middle, and oval at the summit, which is rather concave. ‘These 
facets in both recent animals and Mammoth rise up the side of a protuberance on the 
lunare aspect, forming in the African a continuous articular surface where the facets of 
the different bones are not so defined as in the Asiatic and Mammoth. In my collec- 
tion there are two adult scaphoids somewhat differing in size, outline, and arrangement 
of their facets. . 
1. The largest (Pl. XVII. fig. 10) is entire, with the exception of the anterior 
portion of the radial and almost the entire lunare facets, also a portion of the posterior 
inferior angle. The specimen has also sustained two fractures obliquely across its 
middle, which, however, do not interfere with the outline of the bone. The importance 
of this integral part in the motivity of the foot is calculated to be influenced by the 
animal’s habits, as would of course the more anterior long bones; hence the necessity of 
a careful survey of these portions of the extremities. ‘The following are the dimensions 
of the one in question :—Entire length 3-2 inches, greatest breadth (at the middle) 2:67; 
* «Ostéographie,’ Atlas, iii. pl. v. 
* This specimen agrees with the dimensions of the scaphoid of the youthful skeleton (26774, R. C.8.), the 
dimensions of the Sumatran (B. M.) being 3-7 by 2:5 inches, 
