■96 MAMMALIAN DESCENT. [Lect. IV. 



and there larger hairs are seen, but these fail to 

 reach the surface, turning again towards the inside,- 

 like nails driven into wood that is too hard for their 

 points. 



Nothing could be more distressing and disgusting to 

 the highest type that wears a covering of hair than this 

 matting together of these fine, delicate filaments that 

 in their rich fulness crown the head of Beauty : when it 

 does occur it is abnormal, and is relegated to pathology. 

 But here, in the Pangolin, we see a perfect coat of mail 

 formed by the imbrication of these large tracts of well- 

 cemented hair-plates. Such an armour would, if the sun 

 were overhead, " scald with safety ;" but the PangoHn is 

 a lover of the shade, and, although not very intelligent, 

 is much too wise to allow himself to be burnt under his 

 own roof-tUes. 



The other Old World Edentate — the Aard-vark {Oryc- 

 teropus) — is not covered with armour, butwith a thick coat 

 of coarse hair. He is not truly edentate, but has teeth 

 similar to those of the Armadillo. Similar, but not the 

 same, for his sub-cylindrical rootless teeth have many 

 vertical pulps instead of one. A section of these shows 

 a compacted mass of hexagonal prisms ; so that his 

 teeth might be said to be a sort of ivory whalebone. 



Most biologists think that these are a degradation 

 of proper mammalian teeth. Long ago. Professor 

 Owen, in his magnificent Odontography, showed that 

 the various sorts of Cartilaginous fishes have teeth 



