UNITY OR PLURALITY OF SPECIES. 265 



land. I know of two only, to be found in public collections : 

 the one of an adolescent animal in the Museum of Saffron 

 Walden, mounted, and therefore less reliable ; the other in 

 the Osteological department of the British Museum, not set 

 up, and in the most favourable state for examination. It is 

 of a young adult, in which the epiphyses are not yet united, 

 imported from the Cape of Good Hope ; sex unrecorded. 

 The bones are still covered with the periosteum and shreds 

 of ligament, having not yet undergone the preliminary ope- 

 ration of cleaning. The vertebral column is in masses of 

 from three to five vertebrae, united by ligaments, while others 

 are free. On three different occasions, specially with a view 

 to the present investigation, has the vertebral column been 

 put together by me, scrupulously examining all the surfaces 

 of juncture from the sacrum to the atlas, and the following 

 results were yielded : — -7 cervical v, 20 dorsal v, 3 lumbar v, 

 4 sacral v, 26-30 caudal vertebra?, and 20 pairs of ribs, one 

 of the last pair being wanting. 1 The precise number of the 

 caudal vertebra? could not be determined, as the terminal 

 portion of them is still embedded in the tail. But there are 

 at the least twenty-six. 



We have thus two instances, the one South African and 

 the other from Congo, in which the Elephant of that con- 

 tinent shows only twenty dorsal vertebra?. Cuvier is thus 

 relieved from reproach, in so far as this species is con- 

 cerned. 



The skeleton belonging to the Museum at Saffron Walden 

 is that of a young but nearly adult male, which was imported 

 from Algoa Bay. 2 It was carefully examined, with reference 

 to the question now under discussion, jointly by Mr. W. H. 

 Flower and myself, and yielded the following numerical 

 results : cervical vert. 7, dorsal vert. 21, lumbar vert. 3, sacral 

 vert. 3, caudal vert. 30, pairs of ribs 21. The dentition was, 

 at the same time, minutely examined, and I can affirm that 

 the characters agreed exactly with those of the skeleton 

 belonging to the British Museum. The skull and other de- 

 tails of the bony frame were also alike. The evidence is 

 of the more weight, as both skeletons were derived from 

 Southern Africa ; excluding the plea which might have been 



1 In order to put the statement be- 

 yond question, as resting upon the testi- 

 mony of a single observer, I requested 

 my friend, Mr. W. H. Flower, the able 

 Conservator of the Museum of the Royal 

 College of Surgeons of England, to exa- 

 mine the skeleton closely, and he arrived 

 at the same numerical results. 



2 The Museum at Saffron Walden 



affords an excellent illustration of what 

 may be done by a small provincial town 

 to promote the cultivation of science. It 

 possesses two mounted skeletons of 

 large Pachyderms, which cannot be 

 matched by any of the Metropolitan 

 collections. The museum reflects great 

 credit on the locality. 



