46 



ME. A. L. ADAMS ON THE OSTEOLOGY OF 



The three views of the atlas (PI. XIII. figs. 1,1a Scb) are given chiefly with the inten- 

 tion of showing the mode of insertion of a, the upper arch of the transverse process, and 

 also the general contour of the lower border, and outline of the vertebral and odontoid 

 canals, the same being observed in E. antiquus, also in the African Elephant, as pointed 

 out by Busk in connexion with the fragments from which he established characters 

 referable to his U. melitensis in contradistinction to the fragment* he has assigned to 

 the E. falconeri, which, he considers, displays the peculiarities of the Asiatic. In con- 

 sideration of the difl'erence in size between fig. 1 and the fragments ascribed to E. meli- 

 tensis and E. falconeri of Busk, were it not for the obstacles just stated, I should be 

 inclined to attribute the discrepancies to individual differences in size, seeing that rela- 

 tively there is less difference in dimensions between the extremes than obtains in indi- 

 viduals of the recent and other fossil species. 



The portion of a spinal column (PI. XI. fig. 9) was found close to the jaw and 

 molars (PI. IX. figs. 1 & 2, and PI. II. fig. 10). Here seven of the upper dorsal verte- 

 brae are included in a space of 9 inches, and present all the characters of an aged indi- 

 vidual. Unfortunately they were much injured during the process of removal, from 

 the very stiff stalagmitic matrix in which they were embedded, their neural arches being 

 lost ; the bodies, however, are fairly preserved, of which the first and fourth dorsal are 

 shown (natural size) in PI. IX. fig. 3 & 4. These and the other vertebrae in PI. XI. 

 fig. 9, as compared with the far more perfect seventh cei-vical and middle dorsal de- 



' Are computed. 



* There is a skull of an Asiatic Elephant in the Royal College of Surgeons, London, showing the penultimate 

 milk-molar nearly in fuU wear, with a breadth from the outer margins of each condyle almost identical with 

 fig. 1. 



' Unfortunately the skull of this very young elephant has not been preserved ; but, by computations made 

 from the long bones, I reckon its height to have been about 4 feet at the shoulder. The atlas has the centre 

 of the arch unossified, and the lower arch, with the two centres of ossification, joined by cartilage, with no 

 epiphyses on the transverse processes, the vertebral foramen for vessels being incomplete. This atlas is 

 slightly larger than that of the articulated skeleton in Oxford University Museum, with its third and fourth 

 milk-molars in use, the height at the shoulder being nearly 4 feet. 



* Trans. Zool. Soc. vol. vi. p. 253. 



