ELEPHANT AND MASTODON. ii 



Asiatic Elephant amounted to seven or eight. This number* 

 adopted on the authority of Corse, is stated in his ' British Fossil 

 Mammalia.' 1 But it was not likely that the true numerical 

 formula would escape the sagacity of this eminent Comparative 

 Anatomist when directed to the teeth of the Elephant in connection 

 with those of the ordinary Pachydermata. Accordingly, in the last 

 part of his Odontography, while he agrees with M. de Blainville in 

 attributing six molars on each side of the jaws to this genus, 3 

 he has made a considerable step in advance of the latter Anatomist 

 in regard to their signification. The occurrence of a vertical sue- 

 eessional premolar in the upper jaw of one or more species of Mas- 

 todon had previously established that the two anterior grinding 

 teeth in that genus are displaced, like the milk teeth in the ordinary 

 Pachydermata, by a vertical successor. Professor Owen follows 

 up this indication to its legitimate conclusion, and infers that the 

 third molar in the series of antero-posterior succession in the Mas- 

 todon, is the last milk molar, the vertical successional tooth by 

 which it ought, normally, to be pushed out, usually remaining un- 

 developed. He then extends this view to the dentition of the 

 Elephant, and states that ' it is probable that the three preceding 

 teeth' (namely the three first developed molars) ' are analogous to 

 the true deciduous molars of the ordinary Pachyderms.' 3 The cor- 

 rectness of this opinion is susceptible of demonstration by the den- 

 tition of an Indian fossil species which we have named Elephas 

 pkmifrons, to be described in this work. The determination of 

 the point w r as of great zoological interest, by explaining the 

 apparent anomaly which had hitherto divided the teeth of the 

 Elephant from those of the allied families in the order. 



Next, in regard to the establishment of the species. — The fossil 

 remains of the Mammoth had, during ages, attracted more or less 

 attention in every country in Europe, having been found in 

 England and in all parts of the Continent, from Italy to Siberia. 

 But it was only towards the close of the last century that definite 



, 1 Owen, Brit. Foss. Mammal, part v. p. 225. 



2 Idem, Odontography, 1845, p. 626, and note p. 635. 



3 Id. loc. cit. p. 634. 



