156 A Retrospect of PalcBoiitology for Forty Years. 



complexity from the earliest to the latest type, beginning as simple 

 quadritubercular molars in Moeritherium and ending with the complex 

 tooth found in Elejjhas ; in Palccomnstodon the molars are trilophodont, 

 as are the tirstand second niolai-s in Tetrahelodon. In the Stegodonts 

 a further increase in the height of the crests of the molars takes 

 place, the teeth being covered by a thick coat of cement; in still 

 later forms these ci'ests become highly compressed laminas united by 

 cement; as many as twenty-seven plates being present in one tooth 

 in tlie Indian elephant. 



By these researches we are inade acquainted with a series of 

 forms in the direct ancestral line of the Proboscidea, taking as 

 (1) McBvitherinm, Middle Eocene; (2) Palaomastodon, Upper Eocene; 

 (3) Tetrahelodon, Miocene; (4) the Stegodonts, Pliocene; (5) the 

 Mammoth, Ele2)lias jjrimigenius, Pleistocene ; and (6) the living 

 Indian elephant. 



In the same year Andrews gave an account of farther discoveries 

 in the Fayum, Egypt. The commonest forms met with were 

 J'alaomasfodoa and Arsinoitlierkim. A fine skull of the latter and 

 of Moeritherium were obtained ; the author also described and figured 

 Megalohijrax eoccEnus and Pterodon ofricanus. 



Professor E. D. Cope gave an account of a new type of Perisso- 

 dactyle Ungulate, Phenacodiis j)rim(evtis, from the Eocene of Wyoming, 

 U.S.A., believed to be a primitive ancestor of the horse. In 

 1899 Cope discussed the development of the Proboscidea, but the 

 <liscoveries made by Andrews more lately in Egypt give us fuller 

 information on this subject. 



P. M. C. Kermode gave in 1898 some interesting particulars of 

 the exhumation of the gigantic Irish deer in the Isle of Man ; the 

 first specimen, having been obtained at Ballaugh in the Isle of Man, 

 was in 1819 and is now preserved in the Edinburgh Museum ; the 

 recently discovered specimen has been set up in Douglas Castle. 



Should our retrospect of the life - history of the Geological 

 Magazine in tlie past forty years seem hardly to justify so large 

 a space having been devoted to it, nevertheless we may plead that it 

 serves to sliow what an important part this journal has taken, and 

 still takes, in the progress of geology and palasontology, not only 

 in this country and in our colonies but abroad generally, whilst the 

 splendid list of eminent men among its contributors still stands 

 ■unrivalled. In the matter of illustrations we have a right to feel 

 proud. Seven hundred excellent plates adorn the journal, and 

 seventeen hundred illustrations will be found in the text. 



The increase in recorded fossil remains has been enormous, but 

 the increase in names and the changes brought about in their 

 application have been even far greater. We have only to compare 

 A. S. Woodward and Sherborn's Vertebrata with that part of Morris's 

 Catalogue (1856), or to consider for a moment the great additions 

 made to our Oolitic species of Gasteropoda recorded by Hudleston 

 of late years since Professor Morris's time. 



After all, it is not the length of the palcBontological road which is 

 so trying, but its inequalities. For example, how can the perplexed 



