INTRODUCTION. 



79 



under the influence of a foregone conclusion. Numerous in- 

 stances might be cited of the force of this bias upon the 

 views of some of the ablest writers on the geology of the 

 later Tertiary deposits. 



The object of the present communication is to show that 

 several European fossil species, belonging to two distinct 

 subgenera, have been generally confounded under the name 

 of Elephas primigenius, that these species are susceptible of 

 being discriminated, not on mere trivial or uncertain, but 

 upon broad and well-founded distinctions, and that their 

 range in time is consonant with what is known of other well- 

 determined species of Mammalia, namely, that they have 

 been restricted within definite eras. In order to give any 

 weight to the specific distinctions among the fossil Elephants 

 which I shall endeavour to point out, it will be necessary to 

 explain the grounds upon which they are founded hi greater 

 detail than is set forth in the remarks introductory to the 

 preceding part of this essay, when treating specially of the 

 Mastodons ; and, at the risk of being chargeable in some 

 measure with repetition, I must solicit the indulgence of the 

 Society on the subject. 



The specific name of Elephas primigenius, adopted from 

 the eminent German naturalist, Blumenbach, was applied 

 by Cuvier to all the fossil Elephantine remains occurring 

 in Europe, Northern Asia, and America, up to the date of 

 his last edition of the ' Ossemens Fossiles.' De Blainville, 

 swayed by his adherence to the dogma of a single and simul- 

 taneous creation of living beings, subject to incessant extinc- 

 tions, but never repeated, in admitting Elephas primigenius y 

 extended its area for the reception of the living Indian Ele- 

 phant, as he held the opinion that there were not sufficient 

 grounds for regarding them as specifically distinct. 1 Owen 

 adopted Cuvier' s limitation of the Mammoth ; but, struck 

 with the wide differences presented by molars from various 

 British strata, he endeavoured to account for them on the 

 hypothesis of a gradation between thick and thin plated 

 varieties. 2 Gervais, 3 while fully admitting the a priori im- 



1 ' En sorte que le resultat definitif 

 auquel on est conduit par une logique 

 rigoiireuso, e'cst que dans l'etat actuel de 

 nos collections du moins au Museum de 

 Paris, il est encore a peii pros impossi- 

 ble de demontrer quo l'Elephant fossile, 

 dont on trouve tant de debris dans la 

 berre, differe specifiquement du l'Ele- 

 phant de l'lnde encore vivant aujour- 

 d'huij — De Blainvillo, ' Osteographio : 

 Des Elephants,' p. 222. 



2 ' If these varities ' (i.e. thick- and 

 thin-plated) ' actually belonged to dis- 

 tinct species of Mammoth, those species 

 must have merged into one another, so 

 far as the character of the grinding 

 teeth is concerned, to a degree to which 

 the two existing species of Elephant, the 

 Indian and African, when compared to- 

 gether, offer no analogy.' 



s Paleontologie Frangaise (1848-52), 

 p. 35. 



