MEGATHERIUM. lo7 
follows also that the abdominal cavity was ex- 
tremely large, and the viscera voluminous, and 
adapted to the digestion of vegetable food. 
The form and proportions of the thigh bone, (v) 
are not less extraordinary than those of the 
pelvis, being nearly three times the thickness 
of the femur of the largest Elephant. Its 
breadth is nearly half its entire length, and its 
head is united to the body of the bone by a 
neck of unusual shortness and strength, twenty- 
two inches in circumference. Its length is two 
feet four mches, and its circumference at the 
smallest part two feet two inches ; and at the 
largest part, three feet two inches. Its body is 
also flattened ; and by means of this flatness, 
expanded outwards to a degree of which Nature 
presents no other example. These peculiarities 
in the femur appear to be subservient to a 
double purpose : first, to give extraordinary 
strength by the shortness and solidity of all its 
proportions ; and secondly, to aflbrd compensa- 
tion, by its flatness outwards; for the debility 
which would otherwise have followed from the 
inward position of the sockets, (t,) by which the 
femur, (u,) articulates with the pelvis. 
The two bones of the leg (x, y,) are also ex- 
tremely short, and on a scale of solidity and 
strength, commensurate with that of the femur 
that rests upon them. This strength is much 
increased by their being united at both extre- 
mities ; an union which is said by Cuvier to 
