Medical and physical researches, or, Original memoirs in medicine, surgery, physiology, geology, zoology, and comparative anatomy . g to geologists, as demon-strating the very close analogy of a mere lusus naturx ofthe mineral kingdom, if it be nothing else, to a portion ofthe animal skeleton. One argument applied to this andother similar specimens, in order to prove that it couldnot be considered as an organic relic, viz.—the total ab-sence of bony material, I conceive to be by no means con-clusive ; it being quite possible that the skeleton of ananimal might be so circumstanced as to become
Medical and physical researches, or, Original memoirs in medicine, surgery, physiology, geology, zoology, and comparative anatomy . g to geologists, as demon-strating the very close analogy of a mere lusus naturx ofthe mineral kingdom, if it be nothing else, to a portion ofthe animal skeleton. One argument applied to this andother similar specimens, in order to prove that it couldnot be considered as an organic relic, viz.—the total ab-sence of bony material, I conceive to be by no means con-clusive ; it being quite possible that the skeleton of ananimal might be so circumstanced as to become completelymineralized, or changed from its original structure, justas we observe some vegetable structures to have ordinary instances, we are well aware the very reverseof this, as regards bones, is the fact; even the animalmatter in fossil bones would appear to be, under some cir-cumstances, as indestructible as the rock in which theyare entombed, some of which are comparatively ancient,such as the saurian bones contained in the cuperose schistsof Europe, and which were found on analysis to containanimal ORGANIC REMAINS OF NORTH AMERICA. 269 ORDER EDENTATA. Genus Megatherium, Cuv. M. Cuvierif of authors. Cuv. Ossemens Fossiles, 3d ed. Vol. V. part 1st, p. 174, pi. 16; Megatherium, S. Ann. of the Lye. N. York, Vol. I. p. 58, pi. 6, and Wm. Cooper, ut su-pra, Vol. I. p. 114, pi. 7, and Vol. II. p. 267 ; Harlans Fauna Americana, p. Animal du Paraguay; Animal incognita. Locality.—In South America, Paraguay, Lima, and inthe vicinity of the river Luxan, three leagues south-westof Buenos Ayres, whence was obtained the skeleton nearlyentire in the Madrid museum. In 1823, remains of thisfossil animal were first discovered in North from Skidaway island, Georgia, in the cabinetof the New York Lyceum ; a detailed account of whichwill be found in the volume of the Ann. of the Lye. ofN. York, above referred to, by the late Dr. M
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