12 PACHYDERMATA, 



notions as to the species, were arrived at. Pallas, who had better 

 opportunities for determining the point than any of his cotempo- 

 raries, upon the perfect remains so commonly met with in Russia, 

 erroneously considered the fossil teeth to be identical with those 

 of the Indian species. A great advance was made in the inquiry 

 through the discovery, by Peter Camper, of the specific difference 

 between the teeth of the Asiatic and African Elephants, 1 when 

 Blumenbach and Cuvier almost simultaneously entered upon the 

 investigation, and arrived at the same result, viz., that the Mam- 

 moth was an extinct form, differing from both of the existing 

 species. Struck with the length of the cranium, and of the 

 incisive sheaths in the Mammoth, as represented in the figures of 

 Messerschmidt's specimen attached to Breyne's excellent remarks 

 in the Philosophical Transactions, 2 and connecting these peculiari- 

 ties with the great width of the crown, and the narrowness and 

 number of the plates in the fossil grinders, Cuvier was conducted 

 to his first happy conclusion. The probability of a similar 

 difference characterizing the species in other fossil genera, 

 flashed across his mind, and opened to him new views respecting 

 the theory of the earth. Great and important were the results ; and 

 after they had been achieved, the illustrious Anatomist reverted, in 

 terms of the. liveliest acknowledgment, to the long neglected 

 figures of Messerschmidt, which had helped him to the first 

 idea. 3 



After determining the specific independence of the Mammoth, 

 the next point to ascertain was, whether the remains occurring 

 in very different deposits, and in localities widely contrasted in 

 climate and in geographical position, belonged to the same or to 

 different species. Notwithstanding that the fossil teeth from the 

 southern parts of Europe commonly presented wider and fewer 

 plates, with thicker enamel, than those of the typical form of Mam- 

 moth found in Siberia, Cuvier attached minor importance to these 

 differences, as the teeth agreed in certain other respects ; and he 

 ranged the whole under the single species of Elephas primigenius. 



1 P. Camper, Descript. An atom, d'un Elephant male, p. 16. 



2 Phil. Trans, vol. xl. 1/38, p. 124. 3 Cuvier, Oss. Fossil, torn. i. p 1/8. 



