102 



MR. A. L. ADAMS ON THE OSTEOLOGY OP 



all external hones and exposed surfaces, there are rugosities amounting to exostosis in 

 very old specimens, which, without the ossification of epiphyses, pretty well indicate 

 age. It would seem, moreover, that the upper surface of the fifth metatarsal in the 

 African is broad and expansive, whilst it is narrow and rounded in the Asiatic. The 

 cuboidal facet, as far as 708/« B.M. is a representative of the African, shows an oval out- 

 line, the same being generally circular in the Asiatic. The latter peculiarities are also 

 apparent on the proximal facets of the first metacarpal and metatarsal phalanges of the 

 fifth toe. The first phalanx of the fifth metacarpal digit is longer and more compressed 

 at midshaft in the Asiatic and Mammoth than in the African, with a well-marked 

 saddle-back facet, and contraction of the sides of the shaft, the latter being even in the 

 African. There is a diminutive articular surface on the inner aspect of the distal extre- 

 mity in the former, whereas the latter shows a more expansive articulation which may 

 have furnished a small terminal phalanx. These differences obtain more or less in the 

 equivalent bone of the hind foot. However, whilst the two bones in the African are 

 nearly of the same length, there is a considerable difference in this respect in the Asiatic, 

 the metatarsal phalanx being conspicuously smaller than that of the fore foot ; but I 

 find there is no persistent distinction, some being relatively smaller than others ; and, it 

 may be, the same obtains in the African. The comparison, however, in the outlines of 

 the first phalanx of the fore and hind foot in the African shows the latter bone assimi- 

 lating to the constricted sides of the Asiatic in contradistinction to the same bone in the 

 anterior extremity. Several of these points appear in the outlines, which are of the 

 natural size. Thus no. 1 (fig. 9) is the first phalanx, fifth fore toe, and no. 2 is the 

 first phalanx, fifth hind toe, of the Asiatic Elephant, whilst no. 3 is the first phalanx, 

 fifth fore toe, of the African, the equivalent bone of the hind foot being like no. 2 of 

 the Asiatic. The no. 4 is the first phalanx, fifth fore toe, of the Maltese large form. 



Fig. 9. 



Ko. 1. 



No. 2 



