80 FOSSIL MAMMALIA. 



Mistakes have also been made on the opposite side : genuine 

 teeth of the hippopotamus have been, by some authors attri- 

 buted to other animals. Aldrovandus, for instance, attributed 

 to the elephant some of the teeth of this same animal ; andBesler 

 has characterized one of its petrified molars by the simple name 

 of dens maxillaris lapideus. 



The first specimens by which the Baron was convinced of the 

 presence of the hippopotamus among the fossil remains, were 

 in the Royal Museum, and had been pointed out by Dauben- 

 ton. These specimens are two in number : the first, a portion 

 of the lower jaw on the right side, containing the penultimate 

 and antepenultimate molar ; the second, a penultimate molar of 

 the upper jaw, in a moderate stage of detrition. A third frag- 

 ment came from the cabinet of M. Joubert, treasurer of the 

 states of Languedoc. It is a fragment of the upper jaw, con- 

 taining the last molar and the last but one, in the left side, pre- 

 cisely in that state of detrition in which the figures of the tre- 

 foils and other lineaments of the crown render them most easy 

 to be distinguished. 



After this the Baron found an astragalus among various 

 fossils collected by M. Miot in the vale of Arno. He observed 

 that its form could not sanction its attribution to the elephant 

 or rhinoceros, nor its magnitude to any smaller animal. And 

 as its figure resembled that of the astragalus of the swine, which 

 of all animals approximates most to the hippopotamus in organi- 

 zation , no doubt was left on his mind as to the propriety of its 

 allocation. However, for still further confirmation, he com- 

 pared it with the astragalus of a foetus of the living species, then 

 in his possession, and found no difference except in magnitude. 



From M. Fabbrone he subsequently received the drawings 

 of those teeth, which had evidently belonged to the hippopo- 

 tamus ; one of these was a fragment of a tusk, or lower canine. 

 It may not be uninteresting to mark the difference of the tusks 

 in those animals which possess them. No other animal has 

 tusks formed like those of the hippopotamus. Those of the ele- 



