360 Discovery of fossil Quadrumana in the Sewalihs. [Ma*, 



feet high. The Cynocephali have large and stout canines, more so 

 comparatively than the other Quadrumana. But to what section of the 

 tribe our fossil belonged, we have not a conjecture to offer. We may 

 remark, however, that the tootli is not channelled on three sides at the 

 base, as in the Entellus. Does the fossil belong to the same species, as 

 the jaw discovered by Messrs. Baker andDuRAND, or to a larger one ? 

 Note. We have sketched Dr. Falconer's highly curious fossil tooth 

 in position with the lower jaw of the Sumatran Orang-otang from 

 the Society's Museum, in figure C of Pi. XVJI1. There is a third 

 facet of wear at the lower extremity d which, on reference, we find 

 Dr. Falconer attributes like c to attrition against the first molar, 

 being observable, he says, in many aged animals. The worn surfaces c 

 and d are uniformly polished, and have evidently originated from 

 attrition against a tooth ; but with regard to the principal facet b, we 

 confess we have a degree of scepticism, which can only be removed by 

 a certainty that the fossil had been seen extracted from the matrix. 

 In the first place, the great extent of the worn surface and its perfect 

 flatness could hardly be caused by attrition against the lower canine 

 which should produce a curvature measured by the length of the jaw as 

 radius. In the next place, the enamel of the tooth is less worn than 

 the interior and softer part of the fossil : and thirdly, on examination 

 with a magnifier, numerous scratches are visible in divers directions : 

 all these indicating that the facet may have been produced on the 

 fossil, by grinding it on a file, or some bard fiat surface. On shewing 

 the fossil to Madhusudana, the medical pandit of the Hindu College, 

 he at once pronounced that the tooth had been ground down to be used 

 in medicine, being a sovereign specific in the native pharmacopeia. 

 This circumstance need not necessarily affect the question, for it is 

 probable that the native druggist would commence his rubbing on the 

 natural plane, if any presented itself to his choice : but Dr. Falconer 

 and Capt. Cautley, to whom we have returned the fossil with a com- 

 munication of our doubts, assure us in reply that the fossil tooth was 

 brought in along with a large collection, so that there is every 

 improbability of its having been in possession of a native druggist. 

 At any rate it is not on the front wear that they so much rest their 

 argument of its origin, as on the posterior abrasion which could on- 

 ly happen in the jaw of a quadrumanous animal. In fact they have 

 recent quadrumana shewing precisely similar wear on a small scale, 

 and no other head will do so. We find only one exception in the 

 Society's museum, viz. the tapir, whose right upper incisor (or non- 

 salient canine) falling between the two lower ones is worn nearly in 

 the fashion of the fossil : but it is less elongated. — Ed. 



