86 
PROCEEDINGS OE SOCIETIES. 
anything having the charm of originality, I cannot yet suppose that my 
endeavours are wholly useless or without interest; in fact, I think every 
accurate determination, no matter how humble its character, is of scien¬ 
tific value. In point of interest it will he remembered that in the 
Loxodon planifrons we have a starting-point, from which the extremes 
of a scale of organization radiate, and, as it were, affords a stepping- 
stone or passage which conducts us directly from the regions of life into 
the chambers of the ancient dead: on the one hand, namely, from the 
African Elephant to the Stegodon insignis, which, as already mentioned, 
by the Steg. Gliftii , passes into Mastodon proper; and, on the other, 
through the extinct JEuelephas Hysudricus, into the Asiatic Elephant and 
fossil Mammoth. 
It is scarcely necessary to remark, that the chief feature by which we 
are conducted on either side is the comparative elongation or depression 
of the conical or cuneiform segments of Loxodon into the pyramidical 
plates of Stegodon as we descend, and into those which display the pec¬ 
tinated or deeply lobed forms of Euelephas in the ascending scale. It 
is out of place to enter into such details as the numerical increase or 
diminution, as well as thinness of the ridges in the several graduating 
species, with other particulars less important as unsuitable to the pre¬ 
sent purpose, the mere mention of them being sufficient to indicate the 
extensive nature of the entire subject. 
In conclusion, I have only to suggest that it may not he impossible 
that some such law as is observable in the succession of the Probosci¬ 
dean organization may ultimately apply in completing the great struc¬ 
tural sequence, not only of Mollusca, but of vegetable life, as we find 
that living Mammalia are frequently intercalated as gradational links 
between extinct fossil species, as in the case before us of the interposi¬ 
tion of the African Elephant between the extinct forms of planifrons 
and Hysudricus, or that of the Indian Elephant passing upwards and 
downwards by Namadicus into Hysudricus, and again into the extreme 
of the series Hlephas primigenius. 
The geographical distribution of these fossils will form another s ab¬ 
ject worthy the attention of future inquirers, and, however invaluable 
the systematic geological arrangements to which we are at present so 
much indebted for the regularity and harmony which we experience in 
our pursuits, it is yet not improbable, and is even to be expected, that 
as Palaeontology, especially that of mammalian remains, advances, modi¬ 
fications will take place as regards our ideas of geological epochs, which 
will not have the effect of rendering us less grateful for subdivisions of 
formations by which we have hitherto profited, notwithstanding that 
they may have been, from the very nature of the case, introduced for 
scientific precision. 
