78 
ORIGINAL ARTICLES. 
existed in Europe, namely, J57. ( Loxodon ) meridionalis , E. ( Euele - 
phas) antiquus, E. ( Euelephos ) primigenius , and E. ( Loxodon) Afri- 
canus fossilis . # A vast number of remains of the three first named 
of these species, have been exhumed over a large area in Europe; 
and, even in the geological sense, an enormous interval of time has 
elapsed between the formation of the most ancient and the most re¬ 
cent of these deposits, quite sufficient to test the persistence of specific 
characters in an Elephant. Do then the successive Elephants, oc¬ 
curring in these strata, show any signs of a passage from the older 
form into the newer ? or what light do they throw on the general 
question P 
It is obviously beyond the scope and limits of the present com¬ 
munication, to enter at length on the details of this great argument. 
I shall confine myself briefly, and with diffidence, to the results to 
which one observer, whose attention has been earnestly fixed on the 
subject, has been conducted. 
If there is one fact, which is impressed on the conviction of the 
observer with more force than any other, it is the persistence and 
uniformity of the characters of the molar teeth in the earliest known 
Mammoth, and his most modern successor. They maintain un¬ 
changed, the same numerical formula of the colliculi, in the succes¬ 
sive teeth ; the same great breadth of crown relatively to its length ; 
the same condensation of the constituent materials ; the same narrow 
parallel-sided transverse bands in the discs of wear ; the same general 
absence of crimping in, and tenuity of, the enamel-plates ; and uni¬ 
formly the same flatness of the plane of wear. It may be urged, 
that the observation is here limited to the characters of a single 
organ, and that to justify any well-founded generalisation, the com¬ 
parison should be carried throughout the skeleton. The objection 
would apply forcibly in the case of living forms ; not merely the 
skeleton, but the soft parts, and the texture of colouring and the 
dermal appendages, would all require to be taken into account. 
* I omit from the list E. (Loxodon ) prisons (vide Synop. Table, Quart. Journ. 
Geol. Soc. 1857, Vol. xiii. p. 319,) which I now regard as being a form of E. anti- 
quus, and E. Armeniacvs , or the fossil Elephant of Sicily and Italy, which is closely 
allied to the existing Indian species, in order to relieve the argument of any elements, 
which may not be considered as being at present established on sufficient evidence. 
I omit also, an undescribed fossil Elephant, from the ossiferous caves of Malta, which 
is in some respects the most remarkable and unexpected form that has yet been 
discovered, fossil or recent. The conception of an Elephant is associated in the 
mind, with the familiar idea of colossal size. E. Melitensis, the name which I have 
applied to the new species, was the Pigmy form of the order. I am in possession of 
a last cervical vertebra of an adult animal, the body of which does not exceed 2.8 
inches in vertical diameter, and 0.95 in thickness, Avith a humerus of a younger, but 
nearly adult individual, the entire length of which was not more than 10 inches. The 
species was discovered through the researches of Capt. Spratt, C.B., of H.M. ship 
‘ Medina,’ to whose indefatigable labours in the Mediterranean, science is so deeply 
indebted. The discovered remains, now entrusted to my charge, include nearly the 
entire dentition, from the new-born calf up to the adult animal, of numerous indi¬ 
viduals. In the Systematic Series, it belonged to the sub-genus Loxodon , and in 
size, stood between a large Tapir and the small unicorned Rhinoceros of Java. 
