APPENDIX. 197 



margin, and convex on the internal, present five very distinct ridges, composed as usual of a 

 double series of large tubercles, in the midst of which rise others smaller, besides a large talon, 

 which serves as a counterpoise to the last or fifth ridge." A rigorous application of the principles 

 of Blainville induces Professor Sismonda to declare that the Dusina Mastodon has two sorts of 

 molars ; referring to the two penultimate or fifth, those in the upper jaw, and to the two ultimate 

 or sixth, those in the mandible* 



Vertebral Column. Cervical Vertebra;. — In a note it is said : " A new species of elephant 

 has recently been introduced to scientific men (Elephas Sumatranus, Temm.), intermediate 

 between the Indian and African. This new species, the original of which is in the Museum at 

 Leyden, is characterized by fourteen pairs of false ribs ; that is, one pair less than the African, 

 and one pair more than the Indian Elephant. It has, moreover, twenty dorsal vertebrae, instead 

 of nineteen as in the African, or twenty-one as in the Indian ; while it possesses four sacral 

 vertebra? as in the former, and thirty-four coccygeal as in the latter. When chance shall have 

 revealed to naturalists a Mastodon skeleton really complete, and shall thus have put them in a 

 situation to determine the precise number of vertebra? and ribs naturally belonging to it, then 

 it may be known to which of the three existing species of Elephant the Mastodon had the 

 greatest analogy."! 



The vertebra? are not all in the best state of preservation, but sufficiently so to determine 

 the series, and even their respective order in that series. Among the cervical are recognized the 

 third, sixth, and seventh or last ; all more or less fragmentary, and peculiar in the delicacy of 

 the body ; thus proving the neck of the Mastodon to have been short, as in the existing ele- 

 phants. 



Inches. 



Third Cervical. Transverse diameter of the body 4.7 



Transverse diameter of foramen for vertebral artery . . . . . . 0.7 



Sixth Cervical. Vertical diameter of the body .......... 5.5 



Transverse diameter of the body 5.9 



Dorsal Vertebra. — Fourteen are almost entire ; and there are several separate spinous 

 processes. Arranged in the natural order are the third, fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh, with those 

 from the ninth to the nineteenth inclusive. Their resemblance to each other is striking. 



The third dorsal is remarkable for the extraordinary length of the spinous process. From 



* The numerical position thus assigned the teeth admits of some discussion. From a careful examination of more 

 than twenty jaws of the Mastodon Giganteus in our possession, we do not find a single instance of the solitary existence 

 of a fifth tooth in the upper or lower jaw. It is usually, even when the preceding fourth tooth is in situ, accompanied by 

 a more or less perfectly developed germ of the sixth tooth. — Author's Note. 



t The question proposed by Professor Sismonda is answered in indisputable form by the skeleton described in this 

 work, all its ribs being perfect, and the twentieth consolidated by a united fracture, on one side, to the nineteenth (Plate 

 XXIII. Figs. 3 and 4), while these two ribs are in their natural and perfect state on the other. — Author's Note. 



