Кзпөнт.—Оз the Teeth of the Leiodon. 359 
rocks of Kansas. You will not be surprised to find that the fossil remains in 
the Museum were first ticketed as “ Mosasaur.” 
Those who have read Mantell’s * Wonders of Geology” will recall to mind 
that Mons. Hoffman discovered the remains of the Mosasaur in the quarries 
of St. Peter’s Mount, in the suburbs of Maestricht ; how he was despoiled of 
his specimen by the greedy canon of the cathedral; how, when the 
armies of the French Republic advanced to the gates of Maestricht and 
the town was bombarded, the troops were not allowed to play on that part of 
the city in which the celebrated fossil was known to be contained ; and how, 
when the city was taken, the canon had to give up his ill-gotten prize, which 
was immediately transmitted to the Jardin des Plantes at Paris, * where,” 
says Mantell, “it still forms one of the most striking objects in that 
magnificent collection.” We may regard with pride and exultation the 
remains of the Leiodon in our Museum—a trophy of geological research, not а 
spoil of war! 
The enormous jaw-bone of the Mosasaurus hoffmanni measured 41 feet 
long ; ours, of the Leiodon, would be less than that. I shall, in this brief 
paper, confine my remarks principally to the examination of the teeth, this 
being the work I have undertaken as a supplement to the paper by 
Dr. Hector.* 
It is observed by Owen that the value of dental characters is эдей by 
the facility with which they may be rendered available to the paleontologist 
in the determination of the nature and affinities of extinct species, of whose 
organization the teeth are not unfrequently the sole remains. I am not, 
therefore, disposed to undervalue the importance of the subsidiary work I have 
been engaged in. Mantell, by comparing the fossil teeth with those of recent 
Lacertz, was able satisfactorily to place gigantic fossil remains of Tilgate Forest 
among the extinct species of the Pleurodont section of Iguanians. Again, 
among the Saurian reptiles, Owen remarks that hitherto in investigating the 
internal structure of the teeth of the crocodile, Plesiosaur, Myalosaur, Monitor, 
and more recent Lacertians, he had found the dentine body of the tooth to 
consist of caleygerous tubes radiating direct from the pulp cavity at right 
angles to the external surface of the tooth; but, in the Zabyrinthodon, he 
found the most singularly complicated convolutions of the dentine. Through 
the kindness of the Hon. Walter Mantell, T am able this evening to 
offer you for microscopic inspection a valuable section of the tooth of the 
Lab. jaegeri. I could not show you a more interesting proof of the value of 
dental characters. I have here, also, a section of the human tooth, in which 
you will be able to trace the fine caleygerous tubes which form the minute 
Structure of the teeth of all Vertebrates, and which, by their ubioden pid 
* See Art. LI1. 
