120 FOSSIL MAMMALIA. 



the want of that little tooth, which the common bears, and the 

 polar among the rest, invariably have behind the canine. But as 

 there were many other reasons for this negative, and many still 

 more convincing, it became a matter of interest that some one 

 should employ himself in collecting them. This was done by 

 M. Rosenmiiller, an anatomist of Leipsic, first in a Latin 

 description, published in 1794, and afterwards in a little Ger- 

 man book, called " Materials for the History and Knowledge 

 of the Fossil Bones,*" in 1795. He gives a figure of a com- 

 plete head of the large fossil bear, with convex forehead, the 

 lower jaw of which appertained to an individual of larger size. 

 This cranium came from Gaylenreuth. M. Rosenmiiller enters 

 into a careful comparison of this cranium with that of the 

 brown bear, and with Pallas's description of that of the polar- 

 bear. The result of this proves the three animals to have been 

 totally different. But the author makes no mention here of 

 the other bones of this bear, nor of the other species of ursus, 

 with whose bones its remains are intermingled. In 1804, 

 however, he published, in French and German, a much more 

 detailed description, with very numerous figures, of the fossil 

 osteology of the bear. 



Peter Camper seems to have been the first who recognised 

 any distinction between the fossil species among themselves. 

 His researches were followed up by his son Adrien. M.Blu- 

 menbach expressly distinguishes two; that most anciently 

 known he calls ursus spelceus, and a second, ursus arctoideus^ 

 because he found in it much more resemblance than in the first 

 to the brown, or rather black, bear of Europe. These two last, 

 as is known, were confounded by Linnaeus, under the name of 

 Ursus Arctos. 



Such was the state of ursine fossil osteology up to the first 

 publication of Baron Cuvier's work. Though remote from the 

 actual localities of these bones, he was fortunate enough, by 

 his access to valuable collections, and the assistance of his 

 friends, to be soon enabled to treat the subject in a manner infi- 

 nitely more complete than any of his predecessors had done. 



