398 CORRESPONDENCE. 



officers, when the following gentlemen were elected for the cur- 

 rent year : — President, A. Billings, jr., Esq. ; 1st Vice-President, 

 N. B. Webster, Esq., A.M.; 2nd Vice-President, George Hay, Esq., 

 Secretary, .Thomas^ Austin, Esq. ; Curator and Librarian, E. Van- 

 cortland, Esq., M.D. ; Committee of Management : J. Thorburn, 

 Esq., A. M.'; Duncan Thompson, Esq., and Thomas Daniel, E«q. 



CORRESPONDENCE. 



Description of Elephantine Molars in the Museum of the Univer- 

 sity. By Prof. A. Winchell. 



(In. a letter to one of the Editors of this Journal.) 



Ann Arbor, Mich., Aug., 1863. 

 My dear Sir, 



Your favour of 25th June was duly received, and I thank you for 

 its various items of information. Relative to the remains of 

 fossil elephants in the museum of the University, I regret to say 

 that you have been misinformed. We have a cast of an entire 

 lower jaw and a tusk of a mastodon from near St. Thomas, C. W., 

 obtained from Thomas Barret, of Niagara Falls, and not unlikely 

 you are in possession of similar casts. Probably this jaw has 

 given rise to the report of which you speak. Of elephant remains 

 the museum contains only three molars. As a description of these 

 may furnish some items of desirable information for you, I have 

 delayed somewhat my reply to your letter with the view of obtain- 

 ing time to make such observations as might be necessary for a 

 description of them. 



1. The first is a cast of a left upper molar received by me from 

 Prof. Tuomey, of Alabama, who had the cast executed from a spe- 

 cimen found in that state. 



The anterior extremity of the tooth seems to have been broken 

 off, and I think it is proper to allow one inch (including two plates) 

 for this loss. The alveolar portion of the tooth is furnished with 

 several fang-like prolongations, the anterior one of which reaches 

 a length of nearly two inches. The outer side of the tooth ex- 

 hibits a curvature having a radius of about eight inches ; the inner 

 side is nearly straight. The crown presents a slight convexity 

 longitudinally, and is flat transversely. The plates extend with 

 slight, irregular undulations, continuously from side to side. The 

 posterior ones — especially those behind the grinding surface — -are 

 somewhat curved in their prolongation from the crown to the 

 roots of the tooth. 



