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LETTER XXVI, 
FOSSIL REMAINS OF ELEPHANTS FREQUENTLY FOUND MANIFEST 
THE EXISTENCE OF ONE OR MORE FOSSIL SPECIES. 
The family of Pachydermata , Crassipelles, distinguished by the 
great thickness of the skin, by having more than two hoofs, and, ex- 
cept in the elephant, by having all the three kinds of teeth, is divided 
into the following genera 1. Hyrcuv, Cape marmot ; 2. Sits; 3. 
Tapirus ; 4. Rhinoceros ; 5. Elephas ; 6. Hippopotamus. To which 
may be added two other genera, the fossil remains only of which have 
been discovered. These have been named by Cuvier Palceotherium 
and Anoplotherium. 
Theophrastus knew of the existence not only of lapidified bones, 
but of fossil ivory, Plin. lib. xxxv. cap. 18. The enormous bones 
related by Herodotus to have been found at Tegea, Herod, lib. i. sect. 
68, as well as those at Caprea, Suet. Ann. sect. 72, were doubtless 
the bones of elephants. The bones mentioned by Strabo, on the 
authority of Gabinius, Strab. Geogr. lib. xvii. were, in all probability, 
of the elephant, or of some cetaceous animal. 
Numerous remains of elephants have been found in Italy ; and al- 
though a very considerable number of elephants were brought from 
Africa into Italy, yet the vast extent through which these remains have 
been found, and the great probability that the Italians, particularly the 
Romans, would have known sufficient of the value of ivory, to have 
