ELEPHAS PRIMIGENIUS.— MILK MOLARS. 91 



tliey always indicate a well-worn crown whose plane of detrition shows in the above 

 six disks, with the anterior and posterior talons nearly obliterated. 



The fangs in some upper teeth present considerably larger dimensions. A specimen 

 lately obtained in the river-gravels during excavations in Oxford, connected with the 

 main drainage works, shows a ridge-formula of a? 6 a? in 2jXl*l inch. It has a broad 

 anterior fang of f of an inch in width, followed by a long narrow root, which rises from 

 the middle and inner side of the crown, and a posterior fang of about the same size as 

 the anterior. 



A good illustration of this tooth is seen in No. 44,734, B. M. (PL VI, figs. 2 and 2 a). 

 It is a lower molar from Hutton Cave, and, as far as the stage of dentition is of value in 

 determining the thickness or otherwise of the enamel, it is decidedly ^/^^c>^-plated. It 

 holds xl X in 2*6 X 1'3 inch, and is equalled by another specimen of the upper jaw from 

 the same locality, which contains ^ 6 a? in 2*5 X 14. In both eight ridges are contained 

 in a space of about two inches. 



In the collection of milk-molars belonging to the Kent's Cavern Museum there are 

 ten penultimate deciduous teeth, four of which belong to the upper jaw. The upper 

 molars are noted as follows : — " No. j^r^ was found on the 8th of September, 1870, in 

 ' Smerdon's Passage,' in the one-foot level of cave-earth, with two teeth of Hyaena, three 

 of Horse, two of Rhinoceros and one of Deer, three of Badger, besides bones and fine 

 fragments." It is a crown with the six anterior ridges invaded, and holds x Q xm 

 2 2x1-3. 



Another crown, more than half worn, No. 315, was found 23rd June, 1865, in the 

 Great Chamber, in the four-foot level of cave-earth. It holds x ^ x'\\\ about the same 

 dimensions. The enamel is rather thicker in this specimen than in the generality of 

 Kent's Cavern molars, but milk-teeth vary in these respects, and are not of diagnostic 

 importance in respect to thickness or thinness of the enamel. The same formula and 

 dimensions are presented by the still more detrited crown No. tHtj f^'om the same depth, 

 in the " North Sally Port, with five teeth of Hya3na, five of Horse, two of Rhinoceros, 

 and one of Lion." The fourth example, No. 5908, is from the " Long Arcade, in the 

 three-foot level of cave-earth, with five teeth of Bear."^ 



The lower-jaw specimens from Kent's Cavern represent various stages of growth, 

 and differ considerably in dimensions and numbers of ridges, as will appear from the 

 following table (see next page) : 



^ See ' Report Brit. Assoc.,' 18/2, p. 46. The stratigraphical positions of the others are copied from 

 an extract sent along with the original specimens. 



