MAM 



filver in fine powder. When this difeafe occurs above the 

 knee, it is called ya/Zanc/crj. 



MALLING, West, 1. 6 and 7 from the bottom, r. 

 181 I — 1 154 — 223. Add — In iSi I, the number of houfes 

 in Eafl Mailing was 217, and of inhabitants 1256. 



MALMESBURY, col. 2, 1. 34, r. 181 1; 1. 35, 237 — 

 1152. 



MALPAS. In 181 1, the townfhip contained 193 

 houfes, and 938 perfcis ; •vi-z. 478 males, and 460 females. 



MALTA, a town of the diftrift of Maine, in the 

 county of Kenncbeck, having 468 inhabitants. 



MALVERN, Great, 1. 22 from the bottom, r. 181 1 

 — 1205 inhabitants, occupying 204 houfes. 



MAMAT, St. r. St. Mamot. 



MAMMALIA. Dele the account of the plates. 



MAMMOTH, or Mammont, in Natural Hi/lory. The 

 name of mammoth has been given to two very different 

 animals, whofe remains are found in a foffil ftate ; the firft, 

 which has been for ages called fo by the Ruffians and 

 Siberians, occurs abundantly on the north part of the 

 ancient continent. It is a fpecies of elephant, the ivory 

 of which is fo well preferved as to become an article of 

 commerce. This animal, according to the refearches of 

 Cuvier, is a different fpecies of elephant from that of 

 India or Africa, refembling the former the moft. The 

 American mammoth, as it has been called, belongs not only 

 to a fpecies diftinft from the European mammoth, but from 

 the Indian or African elephant, and from the form of its 

 teeth mud be even claffed as a diftinft genus ; he has given 

 it the name of maftodon. See Mastodon, Addenda. 



Of the Ruffian maftodon very erroneous accounts have 

 been publiihfd, particularly refpefting its fize. An animal 

 of this kind having been difcovered preferved entire in the 

 ice, by a TungufTian fifherman in Siberia, was afterwards 

 defcribed by Mr. Adams ; but, according to Cuvier, the 

 great fize attributed to it by that gentleman does not accord 

 with the actual admeafurement of the bones, the head 

 weigliing, according to this account, four hundred pounds, 

 which brings it nearly to the known fize of the foffil ele- 

 phant. The moft remarkable faft ftated by Mr. Adams is, 

 that the animal was covered with two kinds of hair ; the 

 one red, which was both of a finer and coarfer fort ; the 

 othei- was long, black, and briftJy. This hair was very 

 abundant. The faft proves two things of importance in 

 the natural hiftory of the mammoth, namely, that it was 

 a different fpecies from living elephants, and that it was 

 fufficiently covered to enable it to live in cold climates. It 

 is a commonly received tradition in Siberia, that thefe ani- 

 mals are frequently found entire in the ground, from whence 

 the name of mammoth is derived, which fignifies an animal 

 that lives in the earth. According to Cuvier, thefe fa£ls 

 prove that the foffil elephant periftied by a fudden revolution 

 of the globe that deftroyed the whole fpecies, and which 

 froze the individuals that were then in the northern regions : 

 nor can any rcafon be advanced why thefe remains (hould 

 not continue preferved in the eternal ice of thofe countries, 

 till difcovered by accident, or the hands of man. Thofe 

 ■which were overtaken and buried in more fouthcrn climates 

 are more decompofed, and their bones have become more or 

 lefs friable ; but this decompofition is the only change which 

 they have undergone ; they are neither broken nor rolled, 

 and it may be clearly perceived that they perifhed where 

 their bones are now found. Many bones of the fame fpecies 

 of mammoth, or foffil elephant, have been difcovered in 

 different parts of England. We have feen a tooth, one of 

 the molares of thefe animals, found near Whitby in York- 

 shire, which mcafurcd fevcntcen inches round. 



Vol. XXXIX. 



M A M 



The greateft number of the teeth of the mammoth that 

 have been examined refcmble at firft fight thofe of the 

 Indian elephant ; but, according to Cuvier, the ftrufture, 

 on more attentive obfeivation, will be found fomewhat dif- 

 ferent. In the living ipecies of elephants, the fize of the 

 tud^ varies with the fpecies, the fex, and the varieties ; and 

 as they continue to grow during the life of the animal', age 

 determines their dimenfions more than any other caufe. The 

 tuflcs of the African elephant are larger than thofe of the 

 Indian ; they are harder, and preferve their whitenefs better. 

 According to Pennant, Mofambique furnifties tu(]« of living 

 elephants ten feet in length, which are the largcft that are 

 known. The degree of curvature in the tufks differs as 

 much as the fize ; fome occafionally occur in a fpiral form, 

 and fome in that of the letter S. We are unacquainted 

 with the differences that might exift in the curvature of the 

 tuflcs of the mammoth occafioned by difference of fex or 

 other caufes. Many of the tuil« have the common degree 

 of curvature, but others have much more curvature than 

 occurs in any living elephants, approaching to a femicircle 

 or half an ellipfe divided through its tranfverfe axis. Some 

 tuflcs of the mammoth are formed fpiral, like what fome- 

 times occur among living elephants. The height of the 

 mammoth did not greatly exceed that which the Indian 

 elephants can attain. It is however certain from its remains, 

 that the mammoth differed as much from the Indian ele- 

 phant as the afs differs from the horfe. 



The bones of the mammoth, or foffd elephant, are gene- 

 rally found in alluvial foil, near the furface of the ground. 

 They are feldom ifolated, but generally mixed with bones 

 of other quadrupeds of known genera ; as the rhinoceros, 

 the ox, the horfe, and the antelope ; and are often accom- 

 panied with the remains of marine animals, fuch as fhells, 

 parts of which are attached to the bones. Cuvier ftates 

 that he has in his polfeffion a jaw-bone covered with mille- 

 pores and oyfters. 



The beds which cover the bones of the foffil elephant 

 have feldom any great depth, and are fcarcely ever compofed 

 of ftone. They are rarely petrified, and only one or two 

 inftances are quoted where they were incruftedwith a fhelly 

 ftone. Often they are only accompanied with frefti-water 

 fhells. Every thing appears, fays Cuvier, to announce that 

 the caufe by which they were buried is cme of the moft: 

 recent that has contributed to change the furface of the 

 globe. It was neverthelefs a caufe general in its operation, 

 for thefe foffil bones of elepliants are too numerous, and 

 occur in countries too remote and uninhabited to allow us 

 to fuppofe that they have ever been brought there by man. 



The beds which contain and cover thefe remains fhew, 

 that the caufe by which the animals were deftroyed was 

 water, and in many inftances the waters were the fame as 

 thofe of the prefent day, fince they contained the fame 

 fpecies of (hell-fifh. Thefe bones are not watervvorn, and 

 therefore liave not been tranfplanted from a diftance. 



The fhells and millepores which adhere to them prove 

 that they remained fome time covered only with water. The 

 different fpecies of malfodon, the gigantic tapir, and the 

 foffil rhinoceros, lived in the fame countries as the foffd ele- 

 phant, fince their bones are found in the fame beds and 

 preferved in the fame ftate. Every thing tlierefore leads 

 us to conclude that the mammoth, or folfil elephant, is an 

 extinft fpecies, though it differs Icfs from exifting fpecies 

 than the other remains of quadrupeds that are found in the 

 fame iituations. In a former part of this work, under the 

 article Megatherium, the difcovery of the foffil elephant 

 defcribed by Mr. Adams is more particularly given ; but 

 the animal is erroneoufly fuppofcd to belong to another 

 3 Y fpecies 



