Researches on fossil bones, in which are established the characters of various animals whose species have been destroyed by the revolutions of the globe . J?/.. 1,9. .. , lUse/irrhM on Iht^ff. .^•^ ON THE BONES OF THK MASTODON. 841 ?Sad. The tusks of the elephant are enveloped with a substancewhich dilTers from ivory in its texture ; its fibres converge towards thecentre, and though the substance is not so hard as common enamel,it is nevertheless a species of it. The band of the circumference, says Daubenton, is sometimescomposed of straight transverse fibres, which would terminate in thecentr
Researches on fossil bones, in which are established the characters of various animals whose species have been destroyed by the revolutions of the globe . J?/.. 1,9. .. , lUse/irrhM on Iht^ff. .^•^ ON THE BONES OF THK MASTODON. 841 ?Sad. The tusks of the elephant are enveloped with a substancewhich dilTers from ivory in its texture ; its fibres converge towards thecentre, and though the substance is not so hard as common enamel,it is nevertheless a species of it. The band of the circumference, says Daubenton, is sometimescomposed of straight transverse fibres, which would terminate in thecentre if prolonged.—(Natural History, vol. xi, 4to.) This, liowever, is an observation v/hich any one may make upon thetusks, when their surface has not been impaired. My tusk of the mas-todon resembles those of the elephant in this particular. 3dly. Perhaps the softness of the interior of the tusks found by may be owing to some accidental cause which may have decom-posed them more or less, although the bones discovered at the sametime had scarcely undergone any alteration. M. Morichini, professorof chemistry at Rome, ascertained, some }^ears since, that fossil ivory isliabl
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookpublisherlondonghe, booksubjectpaleobiology
