Willistox.J Mosasaurs. 85 



their reverend brother, and Doctor Hoffman not only lost the 

 specimen but was obliged to pay the costs of the lawsuit. The 

 canon, leaving all feelings of remorse to the judges for their 

 iniquitous decision, became the happy and contented possessor 

 of this unique example of its kind. 



" But justice, though slow, arrives at last. The specimen 

 was destined again to change its place and possessor. In 1795 

 the troops of the French republic, having repulsed the Aus- 

 trians, laid siege to Maestricht and bombarded Fort St. Peter. 

 The country house of the canon, in which the skull was kept, 

 was near the fort, and the general, being informed of the cir- 

 cumstance, gave orders that the artillerists should avoid that 

 house. The canon, suspecting the object of this attention, had 

 the skull removed and concealed in a place of safety in the city. 

 After the French took possession of the latter, Freicine, the rep- 

 resentative of the people, promised a reward of 600 bottles, of 

 wine for its discovery. The promise had its effect, for the next 

 day a dozen grenadiers brought the specimen in triumph to the 

 house of the representative, and it was subsequently conveyed 

 to the museum of Paris." 



It is said that after peace was established the canon was re- 

 imbursed for the specimen. But it still remains in Paris. 



This specimen was described and figured by Cuvier in 1808, 

 and the generic name, Mosasaurus , was given to it by Conybeare 

 in 1822 ; the name being derived from the river Meuse 

 ( Latin, Mosa) , near which it was found, and saurus, a reptile. 



In 1843 a specimen previously discovered by Major O'Fallon, 

 an Indian agent, at the Great Bend of the Missouri, who had 

 it taken to his home in St. Louis and placed in his garden, was 

 most carefully and fully described by Dr. August Goldfuss, 34 

 and admirably figured. This description and its accompanying 

 plates were most strangely overlooked or neglected by later 

 authors. The parietal and jugal arches, the pterygoids and vo- 

 mers, the position of the quadrate and the presence of sclerotic 

 plates, all were clearly described or figured. Nevertheless, they 



'■'A. Der Schaedelbau des Mosasaurus, Act. Acad. Caes. Leop. Carol. Nat. Cur., xxi, 1843. 



