193 Miscellanies. 



about eighteen inches over the lower jaw, and which has never been de- 

 scribed before. 



The position of the tusks in the head, has been a subject of discussion 

 among Naturalists, and they have been placed in the same manner as those 

 of the Elephant. It gives me pleasure to state, that I can now settle this 

 question — for in the head which I discovered, I found a tusk firmly im- 

 planted in the socket, and had it conveyed with great care to my museum, 

 but owing to the ignorance and carelessness of a laborer, in carrying it 

 up stairs, it was broken off, but its position can be proved by a number of 

 gentlemen of the highest respectability. The tusks are not situated in 

 the same position as those of the Elephant, as was supposed by some. 

 They diverge outwards from the head with the convexity forward, and the 

 point turning backwards in the same plane with the head ; the tusk found 

 in the head measures ten feet one inch, from the base to the tip, following 

 the outside of the curvature, and two feet in circumference near the 

 socket. The other tusk measures only nine feet — part of the roof is 

 wanting. When placed in the head in their original position, the dis- 

 tance from tip to tip, measures sixteen feet. I may add, that it required 

 two stout men to carry the largest tusk, and two yoke of oxen to carry the 

 head and tusks from the place of disinterment to the museum. 



Besides the mastodon's head, I have found near the same place, several 

 highly interesting remains of antediluvian animals, one of which espe- 

 cially merits attention. It is the head of a nondescript animal, which 

 appears to have been superior in size to the largest elephant, and which 

 resembles somewhat the mastodon in the hind part of the head, but the 

 front part is entirely different; and until it is recognized or proved to 

 have been previously discovered, I shall name it Koch's Missourian, in 

 honor of the State it is discovered in, and intend, in a very short time to 

 give a minute description of it, as well as of a grodt many relics not 

 herein mentioned. 



A. Kocir, Proprietor of the St. Louis 3Iii$eum. 



St. Louis Com. Bulletin of June 25, quoted in Phil. P^for. Am. July 11, 1839. 



12. Latanivvi, a new metal — Berzelius, in a letter to M. Pelouze, 

 dated Feb. 22, 1839, states that M. Mosanderin submitting to analysis 

 the cerite of Bastnaes, in which cerium was met with 25 years ago, has 

 discovered a new metal. The oxide of cerium, separated from the min- 

 eral by the usual process, contains nearly two fifths of its weight of 

 the oxide of the new metal, merely altered by the presence of the ce- 

 rium, and which, so to speak, is hidden by it. This consideration in- 

 duced M. Mosander to give the new metal the name of latane or 

 lantan. 



It is prepared by calcining the nitrate of cerium, mixed with nitrate 

 of lataniura. The oxide of cerium loses its solubility in weak acids, 



