E. (LOXODON) MERIDIONALIS. 139 



Parkinson, 1 and reproduced in the ' British Fossil Mammalia,' 

 fig. 93, p. 239. The origin of this specimen, which is now 

 in the Museum of the College of Surgeons, 2 is not accurately- 

 known. Parkinson states that it was purchased at the sale 

 of the ' Calonnian Museum,' by Mr. George Humphries, and 

 that it was said to have been found in Staffordshire. It is a last 

 upper molar of the left side, the crown presenting twelve 

 ridges and an anterior talon. The first eight ridges are worn, 

 the rest being enveloped by cement. The pattern of the 

 grinding-surface is somewhat abnormal. Interposed between 

 the second and third ridges there is a demi-ridge, composed 

 of two flattened discs, occupying only the inner half of the 

 interspace. The next two ridges are divided each into three 

 flattened annular and well-separated discs. The three last 

 of the exposed ridges have the apices of the digitations 

 barely affected by wear, but showing thick mammillary 

 points. Parkinson describes the tooth as differing from any 

 other that he had seen, the peculiarities of character being 

 the great thickness of the plates, the smoothness of the sides 

 (inner) of the line of enamel, and the appearance of the 

 digitated points of the plates (i.e. the interposed demi-ridge) 

 in the anterior part of the tooth. He adds that the width 

 of the plates may be taken at nearly double that of the fossil 

 teeth in general, and he infers that this tooth indicated a 

 fossil species of Elephant distinct from the Mammoth. 

 The dimensions are : — 



Length of crown, 6-6 in. Width of crown at second ridge, 3'0 in. Greatest 

 width of crown at fourth ridge, 3'5 in. Length of grinding-surface in use, 5-0 in. 



It will be observed that all the peculiarities which struck 

 Parkinson are those that are here considered characteristic 

 of E. meridionalis. Professor Owen has described this speci- 

 men carefully, and, allowing that it unquestionably offers a 

 great contrast to the usual form, nevertheless considers that 

 it exhibits the characters of the thick-plated variety of the 

 Mammoth simply exaggerated from the accidents of age and 

 attrition. The objections, founded upon teeth of the Mam- 

 moth, which he has raised against E. meridionalis, will be 

 considered with most advantage in the sequel, in the remarks 

 upon E. primigennis. (See p. 148.) 



Parkinson's molar differs only from the ordinary character 

 of E. meridionalis in having the groups of digitations that 

 form the flattened rings more apart than usual. The inter- 

 calation of a demi-ridge is not uncommon in the molars of 

 fossil Elephants. This is the only ' thick-plated ' variety 



1 Parkinson's ' Organic Remains,' vol. iii. p. 344, PI. xx. fig. 6. 



2 Catalogue of Fossil Mammalia and Avcs, p. 143, No. 599. 



