238 Mr. Home’s Observations on the Structure of 
much further; since the collection contains materials relating 
to many subjects at present but little understood, and which, if 
they are hereafter rendered accessible to those engaged in such 
researches, will lead to the advancement of knowledge, and to 
many useful discoveries. 
As Mr. Corse’s labours in India have enabled him to give so 
correct and satisfactory an account of the mode of growth of 
the elephant’s teeth, I was desirous that the facts which I had 
discovered respecting their structure, should be introduced into 
his Paper, to render the account more complete: — this offer, 
Mr. Corse however declined, not choosing to bring forward 
any thing that was not wholly his own ; I have therefore added 
them in this place, as. a proper supplement to Mr. Corse’s 
Paper. 
To make my observations on the structure of the complex 
tooth of the elephant intelligible to this learned Society, it ap- 
pears. necessary to mention, generally, the mode in which the 
more simple teeth of the human species, and of carnivorous ani- 
mals, are formed : this knowledge will render the account of 
such additional parts as are met with in those of the elephant, 
more easily understood. 
The teeth of carnivorous animals are formed from a vascular 
pulp, of the same shape with the future tooth, upon the exter- 
nal surface of which the substance of the tooth begins to grow, 
and increases till it is completely formed. This pulp is inclosed 
by a capsule, the cavity of which, while the tooth is growing, 
is filled with a viscid fluid, similar to the synovia of joints ; and 
this fluid, by the absorption of the thinner parts, becomes 
inspissated to a proper state for crystallization, so as to form 
the enamel, which adheres to the surface of the tooth. 
