216 



ELEPHAS COLUMBI. 



with the gigantic Mastodon Ohioticus, but also with a second 

 species of true Elephant (Elephas texianus, Blake), the teeth 

 of which were adajjted to a succulent vegetable diet.' ' In a 

 foot-note to this passage, Bollaert's ' Antiquities of S. Ame- 

 rica, 2nd edition,' is cited as the authority for the second 

 species'. The author of ' Palaeontology ' omits ou both occa- 

 sions to notice that I had previously determined the Ele- 

 phant of the shores of the Gulf of Mexico, under a different 

 and recognized specific name ; and in defence of the new 

 name, he cites authority the existence of which I have failed 

 to trace. I have ascertained in writing from the publishers 

 (Messrs. Trubner), that no second edition of Mr. Bollaert's 

 work has yet appeared (August 1862) ; and on consulting 

 the only imj>ression published in 1860, 1 have been unable to 

 detect the occurrence of the name even of E. texianus any- 

 where throughout the volume, or the name of Blake coupled 

 with any fossil Elephant therein. The sole reference to the 

 Texan Elephant is in a note, professing to be by the author, 

 in which he states that the Elephant-bones occurring in 

 Texas are fossil, and well silicified ; adding, ' I have de- 

 posited a grinder in the British Museum, which appears to 

 be of a new species, see my Paper on Mastodon Bones in 

 Chile. Geological Soc. Journal, 1857.' 2 



1 ' Palaeontology,' 2nd edit. 8vo. 1861, 

 p. 395. 



2 Bollaert, ' Antiquarian, Ethnolog. 

 and other Researches in New Granada,' 

 &c, 8vo. 1860, p. 80. There is another 

 statement, contained in a foot-note in 

 ' Palaeontology,' which demands an ob- 

 servation from me. In the remarks 

 upon Mastodon Arvernensis and Mas- 

 todon longirostris, the following sentence 

 occurs : ' Both belong to that section of 

 Mastodon in which the first and second 

 true molars hare each four transverse 

 ridges,' (Foot-note : ' First demonstrated 

 by Kaup, " Ossemens Fossiles de Darm- 

 stadt, -ito. 1835,") and for which Dr. 

 Falconer proposes the name Tetralo- 

 phodon.' (Op. cit. 2nd edit. p. 387.) I 

 challenge the production from the work 

 cited of any passage containing the de- 

 monstration asserted in the note; it is 

 certainly nowhere to be found there : 

 even the word section, or any other equi- 

 valent term, expressive of the idea of a 

 subdivision of the genus into groups 

 does not occur in it, and for the simple 

 reason, that published materials to sug- 

 gest it did not at the time exist. I was 

 the first to generalize on the subject, 

 and establish the constancy of the ter- 

 nary and quaternary ridge-formulse in 



the Mastodons as a means of ranging all 

 the known species under the two na- 

 tural groups of Trilojihodon and Tetra- 

 lopkodon ; I further extended the same 

 principle of the ridge-formula to the 

 arrangement of the rest of the Probos- 

 cidean forms, or Elephants, under the 

 divisions of Stegodon, Loxodon, and 

 Euelephas. Until then, the species were 

 in extreme confusion ; and nowhere was 

 this more signally evinced than in the 

 writings of Professor Owen on the fa- 

 mily. Kaup, with characteristic fair- 

 ness, recognizes the fact in reference to 

 the Mastodons. In proof, I refer to his 

 'Beitrage,' 3 Heft. (1857) pp. 1, 19. 

 What Kaup vehemently claims as his 

 special discovery is, that he was the first 

 to show the precise number of molar 

 teeth, that succeed each other from back 

 to front in Mastodon (excluding pre- 

 molars, i. e. vertical successors) ; and 

 that his observation on that genus fur- 

 nished the cue for determining the same 

 series in the Elephants. The ' Osse- 

 mens Fossiles de Darmstadt ' is freely 

 quoted in the ' Odontography,' and in 

 the ' British Fossil Mammalia,' both 

 published ten years later ; yet it is not 

 a little singular that the demonstration 

 asserted in the note did not prevent 



