SUBGENERA OF ELEPHAS. 81 



admitted by Christol 1 and Pomel 2 for others from Auvergne 

 and Montpellier ; and by Morren, in bis account of the 

 Elephant remains occurring in the fossil state in Belgium. 3 

 In 1847 it was applied, in the ' Fauna Antiqua Sivalensis,' 

 to remains from the Norwich Crag and lignite bed. 



Goldfuss, in 1821, proposed the name of Elephas priscus 

 for some supposed fossil molar teeth, bearing a strong resem- 

 blance to the molars of the existing African Elephant. Cuvier 

 disputed their authenticity as real fossils ; and it is not a 

 little curious that Goldfuss would appear in this case to have 

 founded a veritable species upon spurious materials. I de- 

 tected in the British Museum molars of indubitable fossil 

 origin from the brick-earth deposit of Gray's Thurrock, in 

 the valley of the Thames, presenting characters closely re- 

 sembling Goldfuss's species, and figures of them were pub- 

 lished 4 under the name of E. priscus in 1847. Pomel applies 

 the name to some fossil molars described by Laizer in 

 Auvergne. 



Fischer de Waldheim, Eichwald, and Morren together 

 have proposed eight nominal species as distinct from E. pri- 

 migenius ; but these were based, for the most part, on such 

 obviously trivial characters that discredit was reflected on 

 tlie species which had a better foundation. 



In 1847 I proposed the name of E. antiquus for molars 

 which are met with in vast abundance in certain of the 

 newer Tertiary beds in England, and in corresponding de- 

 posits on the Continent, more especially in Italy ; but no 

 descriptions having accompanied the published figures, the 

 species has hardly been noticed, and nowhere admitted, by 

 other palaeontologists. 



II. — The Subgenera op Elephas. 



In the first part of this essay (page 11) it was attempted to 

 be shown that the species of Mastodon, with the single ex- 

 ception of M. Sivalensis, are susceptible of being arranged in 

 two natural groups, Trilophodon and Tetralophodon, according 

 to a definite and isomerous numerical expression of the crown- 

 ridges of the three 'intermediate molars' of both jaws, and 

 that this formula implies the ridge-characters of the other 

 molar teeth. 



In the Elephants, the divisions of the crowns of any one 



1 Ann. des Sci. Nat. 1835, 2 me ser. 

 Zool. torn. iv. p. 197. 



2 Catal. Method, et Doscript. 1854, p. 

 74. 



3 Memoiro sur les Osscmens fossiles 

 VOL. II. G 



d'Elephans trouves en Belgique, 1834, 

 p. 13. 



4 Fauna Antiqua Sivalensis, PI. xiv. 

 figs. 6 & 7. (See vol. i. p. 441.— Ed.) 



