369 
which the owner of it says, he obtained of a Mexican, who had pur- 
chased it of a savage of the West of the Missouri, who had found it with 
a tooth in a cave. But it being so fresh, appearing also to have been cut off 
with a sharp instrument, and so perfectly resembling that of an elephant, 
M. Cuvier is induced to suspect some fraud on the part of the Mexican. 
These astonishing remains have, as might be expected, been strictly 
examined by Cuvier. In the 46th number of the Annals of the Mu- 
seum of Natural History, this illustrious anatomist has not only given 
a compendious account of the preceding discoveries which had been 
made respecting this animal, but has also entered into an anatomical 
examination of the several parts which have been found. 
The grinders, he observes, are formed of two substances only; an in- 
ternal bony substance, and a thick coat of enamel. The form of their 
crown is in general rectangular, the hinder ones being rather narrowest 
behind. The crown is divided, by widely spreading grooves, into a cer- 
tain numberof transverse risings, eachof which is divided, in the contrary 
direction, into two large obtuse and somewhat quadrangular and pyra- 
midical points, the whole crown, when not worn, being beset with large 
points, disposed in pairs. In consequence of several of these teeth being 
much worn down, not only to the base of the pyramids, but even so low 
as only to leave one square surface edged with enamel, it has been inferred 
that they have been employed in the trituration of vegetable substances. 
The roots of these teeth being formed after the crown, they are not 
found complete until the crown has begun to be a little worn. 
M. Cuvier particularizes three sorts of these grinders : nearly square, 
with three pair of points, generally much worn ; rectangular, with 
eight points, which are less worn ; and others still longer, with five 
pair of points and a single smaller one, which are seldom worn in the 
least. These appearances agree with their situations ; those with 
three points being the foremost, and appearing the first ; whilst those 
with ten are the hindmost, and appear the last. 
From observations made on the several lower jaws which have been 
VOL. III. 3 B 
