( ) 
Words of two late Authors, that purpofely have defcri- 
bed the Teeth of the Elephant. 
The firft I (hall mention is Mr. Patrick Blair , who has 
publifh’d a Treatife he calls Ofteographia Elephantina , or a 
Delcription of the Bones and other Parts of an Elephant , 
that died and was dilledted near Dundee in Scotland, anno 
I70f>* in the London Philofophlcal Tran factions for April 
May, June, July, Augufi and September , 1710. Numb. 3 16. 
and 3 xy. Here giving us a Defcription of the Teeth of 
this Animal pag. no. he fays, Dr. Moulins well obferves 
that they are all MolareS, being two Inches broad in that part 
cf them wherewith they grind, and fix Inches and a half long 
on the Right Side, and five Inches and a half on the Left v 
Their Surface, tho flat, is yet very unequal, for they have al- 
ternately placed, running from the Right to the l eft Side , an 
Hollownefs and then an Eminence ; and this Eminence is fur - „ 
rounded by a rough protuberant Border. There are Nine of 
thefe Hollowneffes and as many Eminences , undulated as they 
paint Sea Waves , 
’Tis remarkable how very exadtly all this agrees with 
our Figures ; ’tis true thole Hollowneffes and Eminences 
which he mentions to be Nine, do not (o nicely hit with 
the Number of thofe in our Teeth : but this Difference pro- 
ceeds from hence, that he defcribes here the Grinders 
of the upper, whereas ours are the Teeth of the lower 
Jaw ; tho’ fuch a Diftin&ion as this, I am apt to think, 
may Very well arife even in thofe of the fame Jaw, in va- 
rious Animals, from fome peculiar Difpofition in one 
from another, nay and perhaps in the fame Animal, at 
differing times, according as it happens to be older or 
younger, but this by the bye, 
A little farther pag. 114. and 115. where he gives an ; 
Account of thofe of the under Jaw, he fays 
The hindTooth of the Right Side is four Inches, and that 
on the Left five : the one half of their Surface, where they be- 
gin 
/ 
