OSTEOLOGY OE THE HYOPOTAMIDJE. 
27 
tain the true organization of extinct types, and who is aware of our ignorance in this 
respect, will concur with my statement, that if, from the beginning of mammalian 
palseontology, all specific distinctions had been disregarded, and only the generic forms 
had been studied in detail, we should know much more about the extinct creation than 
we do now. The family of Ilyopotamidce may also serve as an instance of the unscientific 
methods which are paramount in palaeontology. During the twenty-five years that the 
genus has been introduced to science, we have contrived to make more than ten species 
out of it ; while nobody has ever cared to ascertain what its organization really was, and 
not a single bone has been figured up to this day. 
This was the state in which I found our knowledge respecting Hyopotamus , when I 
determined to study it more completely than had been done heretofore. I knew that 
the principal collections, containing large materials for the study of this genus, were 
at Puy in Central France and in the British Museum. My kind friend Professor 
Gaudry, of Paris, gave me letters of introduction to M. Aymard, who is the possessor 
of the largest collection in Puy, and to M. Bobert, Director of the public museum of 
the same town. I met with the most cordial reception from both these gentlemen; 
M. Aymard especially, with the utmost liberality, placed the riches accumulated by 
him, during thirty years of diligent collecting, entirely at my disposal, and allowed me 
to make casts from every specimen I liked. This permission, which is so seldom 
accorded by private collectors, Avas of immense value to me, as my Plates could not be 
drawn at Puy, but had to be made in London. The same facility Avas afforded me by 
M. Bobert; and I take the opportunity of expressing my Avarmest thanks to both these 
gentlemen. My thanks are also due to the artist, M. Pellegrini, in Puy, Avho made 
my casts, sparing no time and taking much trouble, the specimens from Avhich the casts 
Avere taken being generally exceedingly brittle. 
I found in the collection of M. Aymard a large quantity of bones, Avhich enabled me to 
get a complete conception of the skeleton of the interesting genus described in this paper. 
The bones proved that the Hyopotamus Avas one of the extinct Paridigitata Avith cres- 
centic teeth, and had four completely developed digits on the fore and hind legs. The 
size of the teeth and bones enabled me to distinguish tAvo or three species, as had been 
previously supposed by M. Aymard. From Puy I came to London, Avhere, by the kind 
permission of Professor Owen and Mr. Waterhouse, the bones of the Hyopotamus con- 
tained in the collections of the British Museum Avere placed at my disposal. The jaAVS 
and bones from Hempstead, part of Avhich Avere described by Professor Oa\ t en in 1848 
(Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc.), proved to be entirely identical with those found at Puy ; so 
that the name of Bothriodon, which Avas applied to teeth and bones found at Puy, under 
the impression that they AA r ere distinct from those found at Hempstead, could not be 
retained, and the priority remains Avith the name Hyopotamus given by Professor Oaven 
to specimens from Hempstead. But, besides the bones from Hempstead, I found in 
the British Museum a number of Avell-preserved long bones, some metacarpals and 
metatarsals, as Avell as a Avell-preserved tarsus, Avhich came from HordAvell from a true 
MDCCCLXXI1I. 
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