—~ 
NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 
aA 
/ 
whose skeleton has stood in the Museum for more than 50 years, 
was taken as the subject and basis of the restoration, largely because 
of general public acquaintance with it and also because the Cohoes 
animal was not full grown and hence a restoration of it, impressive 
though it might be, was certain not to have excessive magnitude. 
The work was well carried out and the method of its procedure is 
described elsewhere in this report by Noah T. Clarke who did it. 
Problems of pose, dimensions. and hairy skin were among those 
which required solution and as no one ever saw a mastodon, the 
solution has depended on careful reasoning as well as. skilful 
mechanical work. What may be said on behalf of the success of 
this restoration is this; that the best judges of its probable accuracy, 
those who have closely studied this group of animals, admit that it 
is as correct a production as can be made with present knowledge. 
In the process of the work one fact became evident, namely, that the 
body in the form of the flesh before the addition of the hair, was a 
finely moulded expression of the gross external anatomy, resulting 
directly from the procedure of construction. The coating of hair 
has in large part, unfortunately but necessarily, concealed this 
expression. 
The pathologic jaw of the Cohoes mastodon. The abnormal den- 
tition of the Cohoes mastodon was brought out at the time of its 
discovery. Osteological irregularities are not infrequent in these 
great skeletons but this one is obviously pathological. The second 
or back molar on the right ramus of the mandible failed to develop. 
A section of the jaw has shown that the cause of failure in the tooth 
to erupt was that no tooth was ever formed. In consequence the 
mandible shrank to a narrow dental surface in this field. -The single 
molar that did erupt on this side, is set at an angle to. the dental 
ridge, and it seems that this angle indicates a displacement due to the 
heavy impact of the upper molars in imperfect opposition to the 
lower. This brought on a lateral osseous swelling of the ramus, 
threw the anterior symphysis out of place and produced an obvious 
distortion of the entire face. Suspecting a diseased bone condition 
here I asked Dr Minor J. Terry, secretary of the State Board of 
Dental Examiners, to inspect the jaw and he has been satisfied that 
the deep sulcus in the bone tissue about the distorted molar indicated 
a pyorrhoeal condition accompanied by bone necrosis. Difficulty of 
opposition of the upper and lower teeth throughout the dentition is 
shown by the comparatively unworn cusps, except at the distal or 
anterior ends of the other teeth. 
