206 
BRITISH FOSSIL ELEPHANTS. 
Summary of the Dentition of E. meridionalis. 
Incisors. —All the incisor teeth of E. meridionalis , hitherto discovered either in British 
strata or in Northern Italy, appear to differ from the ordinary typical tusk of the Mammoth 
in being relatively much stouter towards the proximal extremity, and by the absence of 
the spiral curvature so pronounced in the former. But individual exceptions might have 
occurred in a tooth so free to pursue an aberrant direction. Even, as has been already- 
shown as regards E. primigenius, the upward tendency is not invariable in that species. 
The relationships between the tusk of E meridionalis and that of E. antiquus, to which 
may be added the two recent species, in contour and direction are so close that, as 
far as specimens are concerned, it would be difficult to point out any reliable dis¬ 
tinctions, excepting in size; moreover, examples of E. antiquus might be adduced equal 
even to the ponderous defensors of E. meridionalis. 
The ante-penultimate milk-molar. —The very few instances of this member of the 
series show a tooth easily distinguishable from the same molar in the Mammoth and 
Asiatic Elephant, not, however, as regards dimensions so much as in thicker plates and 
more intervening cement. As regards E. antiquus and the African Elephant these 
distinctions are not so pronounced. The ridge formula in one tooth of E. meridionalis 
is x 3 x in O'95 by 0'75 inch, thus fully bearing out characters confirmed by the 
true molars; but the exceptional instance of a? 3 a; in 0'7 inch shows considerable 
variability, whilst, on the other hand, such a first milk-molar as that of E. antiquus 
referrred to at p. 86, and shown on PI. XII, fig. 3, embarrasses the diagnosis between 
their ante-penultimate milk-molars. Moreover, the crown patterns are usually not suffi¬ 
ciently developed to afford reliable data, so that one has to trust to the relative proportion 
of elements of the crown, which are also variable, as represented by the molars of E. 
antiquus and E. primigenius (Pis. I, VIII, IX, and XII). The first milk-tooth is there¬ 
fore per se not reliable for diagnostic purposes. 
Penultimate milk-molar. —The previous observations on this tooth, recorded at pp. 
15 and 92, receive further confirmation from the more recent researches at p. 188. The 
sculpturing of the crown is often undistinguishable from that of large second milk-teeth 
of E. antiquus , showing, as in the Mammoth, crimping as well as channelling of the 
machserides. As regards the ridge formula I have not observed a tooth of a lower figure 
than x 6 x. The instance of “ x 5 x,” alluded to at p. 48, is a mistake on my part from a 
miscalculation of the ridges. With reference to dimensions, two entire upper molars 
range from 2'5 to 2'6 inches in length, and are 1'6 in breadth, whilst in five lower teeth 
the lengths vary from 2'6 to 3 inches, and the breadths from 1'2 to 1'5, three showing 
the latter measurement. It will be seen, however, that teeth of both E. antiquus and E. 
primigenius attain equal measurements. 1 However, a comparison of the crowns of penul- 
1 Pages 13 and 92. 
