168 On the Natural History of the Dugong, 
thing to them.” It is unfortunate, however, that neither the age 
nor sex of this specimen is recorded. 
3. At the period when no other perfect specimen had been de- 
scribed, Sir E. Home received two skulls from Sir S. Rafiles, go- 
vernor of Sumatra. In one of these crania, (Vide Phil. Trans. 
1820, Pl. 12,) the superior incisores or tusks protrude in a very 
slight degree from their sockets. On making a longitudinal sec-~ 
tion. of one of them, the whole of its substance was found te be so- 
lid ; at the posterior extremity there was a small shallow cup, com- 
posed of the same materials, which appeared to be no part of the 
tusk itself, but, as it were, fixed to the end of it.* 
In the other ‘skull, which belonged to an animal 8 feet long, the 
tusks project from the sockets, diverging outwards, and have their 
external faces worn to a flat surface. ‘T hey are considerably broader 
than the former, and hollow from the extremity of the root to nearly 
half their whole length. In the lower jaw two rudimentary inci- 
sores were entangled in their sockets. 
4. With the above skulls, Sir S. Raffles sent to this country an 
account of the general external appearance and anatomy of a male 
dugong, 84 feet long, founded on personal observation. 
The teeth are thus described :—‘*‘ Two short tusks project straight 
forward from the extremity of the upper jaw, and are nearly cover- 
ed by the upper lip...... There are no incisors in either jaw (the tusks 
above mentioned being more properly defences,) their place being 
supplied by the rough bristly surfaces of the palate and jaws, which 
serve as rasps, to enable the animal to browse upon the alge and 
other submarine vegetables...... The molares are twelve in number, 
six In each jaw, placed far back on the horizontal part. They are 
cylindrical, with flat crowns; the first are somewhat oblique, and 
worn toa kind of point ; the second are perfectly flat ; but the last 
are composed of two parallel and adjoining cylinders. They are 
‘short, and scarcely project from the gums. 
5. The last specimens sent home by Sir Stamford Raffles, were 
accompanied by a memoir from MM. Diard and Duvaucel, so 
similar to the accounts already published in the Phil. Trans. that 
it was considered unnecessary to have it printed. M. Fred. Cuvier, 
however, in his Hist. des Mammif. made use of the notes of these 
two French naturalists. It was from them, also, that the Baron 
Cuvier received a skeleton, imperfect from the absence of the ster- 
num, but which served as the basis of his description and plate, 
< Ossemens Fossiles,” wherefrom corroborative information alone 
can be reaped. t 
* This idea of disunion is connected with a theory of Sir Everard’s. In the 
cranium in the Royal Society of Edinburgh, exactly similar in other respects 
to the figure given by this author, there is not the slightest appearance of dis- 
connection between the tooth and the shallow cup. 
+ M. Cuvier, however, lately told Mr. Robison, secretary to the Royal So- 
ciety, when the notice of Dr. Knox was shown to him, that “ he now possesses 
a perfect specimen.” ~ : 
