ON THE FOSSIL BONES OF THE ELEPHANT. 291 



solitary specimen, when the possessor of it may have been deceived 

 by those from whom he received it, as to the place where it had been 

 found. 



Addition. 

 On the Teeth resembling those of the African Elephant in their Lo- 

 zenge-shaped Plates, which are accounted Fossils. 

 Resides the teeth of this shape which I have just mentioned, I have 

 received, 1st, from M. Schleyermacher, the drawing of a tooth of nine 

 plates, perfectly similar to that of the African elephant which was pre- 

 served with the label of fossil in the museum of the Baron de Hupsch, 

 but without any reference to the place in which it was found — a cir- 

 cumstance which raises a presumption against its identity. 2dly, M. 

 Goldfuss has given a drawing of one with six or seven plates, in the 

 New Memoirs of the Academy of Natural Curiosities, vol. x, part 2, 

 plate 44. It had belonged to the collection of the late M. Mcehring, a 

 monk of Cologne, but was likewise without a reference to the place of 

 its discovery. 



In the eleventh volume of the same work, he gives a drawing of 

 another {plate 57) of nine plates, only three of which had begun to be 

 worn. It had formed one of the collection of Beuth, as he told me, 

 and had been exhumed on the banks of the Roes, in the duchy of 

 Berg ; but I do not observe that the shape of its plates is precisely as- 

 certainable ; and it would be necessary to saw it, to enable us to come 

 to a positive conclusion on the subject. 



M. Goldfuss further states, that he has seen these teeth in several 

 cabinets ; but I am still inclined to suspect that there must be some 

 error in the asserted place of their discovery, as one of these teeth, which 

 wassent to me by the learned professor, has most certainly experienced 

 no other modifications than those occasioned by its exposure to the air, 

 while its anterior conformation has retained all the smoothness and 

 consistency of fresh teeth. 



A circumstance not a little remarkable is, that M. de Bsehr, in his 

 Essay on the Fossil Remains of Mammalia found in Prussia, makes the 

 same observations on some African teeth supposed to have been exhumed 

 near Dantzick. One of them still had some membranes adhering to the 

 interior of its roots. 



As for the African teeth supposed to have been identified amongst 

 those of Thiede, as we are still without exact drawings of them, it is im- 

 possible to form any judgment on them. 



To these observations I shall add, that a merchant in whom I had 

 been accustomed to repose entire confidence, and who is now dead, at- 

 tempted on one occasion to deceive me by giving me an African tooth 

 which he had encrusted with marl. Nay, I know it to be a fact that his 

 roguery proved more successful with another person, and that this arti- 

 ficial fossil is deposited in a certain museum, where probably in a few 

 years hence it will be held up as a proof in favour of this second species 

 of elephants ; but a mere inspection of its casing will be sufficient to 

 discover the truth. 



