observations on the bones, commonly supposed to be elephants bones, which have been found near the...

Observations on the Bones, Commonly Supposed to Be Elephants Bones, Which Have BeenFound Near the River Ohio in America: By William Hunter, M. D. F. R. S.Author(s): William HunterSource: Philosophical Transactions (1683-1775), Vol. 58 (1768), pp. 34-45Published by: The Royal SocietyStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/105753 .

Accessed: 22/05/2014 14:07

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range ofcontent in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new formsof scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].

.

The Royal Society is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to PhilosophicalTransactions (1683-1775).

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded from 194.29.185.71 on Thu, 22 May 2014 14:07:12 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=rsl

http://www.jstor.org/stable/105753?origin=JSTOR-pdf

http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp


[ 34]

Recetved December o, 1:767.

V. Obfervations on the Bones, comtwongy uppofed to be ElephaMgs Bones, which hase been fovnd near tbe Riser Ohio ies Ame- rica: ty Williaul Hunter, M. D F. R. S

.

Read febr6uary 2 s.\5AT u RALISTS, even tlzofe of our * 15 owntimes, haveentertainedxery

different opirlions concerning foSll ivoryS and the large teeth and bones, which have been dug up in great numbers in various parts of the world.

At firrt, fome thought them antmal fubRances, arld others mineral. When only a certain number of obServations had been cclleded, theIe fubIlances were determined to be mineral. but, the fubjed having; been more carefillly examined, they were found certainly to be parts of animals.

After this point was SettledX a difipute arofes to what animal they belonged. - The more general opiZ nion was, that they were bones of the elephant; and the great flmilitude of the foEll talfks to the real elephants teeth gave this OpilliON confiderable credit.

lt was liable liosreYer to great objedrions: the bones were obfierved to be larger than thofe of the elephant; and it was thoug;ht firange tkat elephants ffiould have been forsllerly fo numcrous in weRern countries, where they are no longer natives, and in cold countries) Siberia particularlyv wlacre they can t}ot now live.

W e



re 1 We had information frolm MuCcovy, that the ln-

habitants of Siberia believed them to be tile bones of the mammouth, an aninlal of whicll they told and believed Itrange Itories. But modern philofophers have held the manlmouth to be as fabulous as the centaure

Of late years the fame fort of taIIes and teethX with fome other large bones, hasre been found, in confiderable rlumbers, rlear the banks of the Ohio, in North America. The French Acadetnicians beZ came poSeSed of fome fipecimens of them; and llaving compared them witll the bones of real ele- pllants, a-nd with thoSe which had been brought to France from Siberia, and with fimilar bones found in various other parts, determined, with an appearance of probability on their fidc, that they were elephants bones.

Monfieur Buffon gives us the following account of this decifion a: Cc All this pllt together, leaves us < no longer any room to doubt, that thoWe tuis { (dfenMPs), and thoSe lar-ge borles foO2snens2, are < truly the tuIEs and bone$ of the elephant. s M. Sloane had faid this, but had not proved itO 4' M. Gtn-elin has likewife faid fo, and more pofitively ;

a " Tous. ceIa rouni, fait que nous; ne doutons plus que ces 4s definSes & ces oXemens ne foient en effet des defenfes 8z desq " ollemens d'elephant.* M. Sloane l'avoit dit,- mais ne l'avoit

pas prouse. M Gmelin l'a di-t encore plus afiirmative-ment,, & s-' il nous a donne fur cela des faits curieux; mais M. Daubenton 6 nOUS paroit etre le premier, qui ait mis la- chofe hors de doutes 4' par des- mefures precifes, des comparaifons exaEtes, & des " raiCons indees Xr les grandes connoiffiances qll'il 'eR. ac- *4 quifes dans la fcience de lanatomie comparee+" Hi Na- Zrelle>; Ts)m. X1. p. 87.

F a 't and



[ 36 J and he has given us fome curious faEs cotzcern

ss ing this queJiion; - but M. Daubentols

tC appears to us to be the firR who has put the mat- { ter beyond doubt, by accurate meafures, by exadt " comparifons, and by reafons founded upon the cs great knowtledge which he has acquired in tlae {' fcience of cornpatative anatomy."

From the firit time that I learned this part of natural knowledges it appeared to Hme to be very cutious

and interefiing; inafmuch as it feelned to concur with nlany other phsenometla, in proving, that in former times rome aIlonithing change nluft have happened to this terraqlleous globe; that the highe mountains, in moIt countries now known, muR have lain for many ages in the bottom cDf the fea and that this earth muIt have been fo changed with ree fipedc to climates, that collntries, which are now in tenfely cold, mull have bcen fornrerly inhabited by animals which are now confined to the warm climates.

Some tinre in the laIt fpring, having been informed that a confiderable quantity of elephants teeth had been brought to tlle Tower, frosu America; atld being defitous of procuring forne information concerning them, I vvaited upon Mr. Bodington, to know the particulars, and to beg leazze to examine theln. He obligingly garre me a verbal account of their }atZing beeil brought from the baxaks of the Ohio; and on the following day fent mte one tuIk, and one grinzder, as fipecimens fur my examination. The tuR, illcleed, Seemed fo like that of an elephantX that there slppeared no roo--m for doubt^. I lhewed it to my tzrothers and he thought fo too: but, being particularly converEant with comparatisre anatomyX at the

I firLt



[ 37 ] hrk fight he told me that the grinder was certainly lat an elephant's. From the form of the knobs on the body of the grinder, and fro-m the difpof1tion of the enamel, which makes a cru{} on tlle outfilde only of the tooth} as in a human grinde-r, he was convinced that the animal was either carnivorous, or of a mixed kind. This made me think that the tuIk itEelf was not a real elephant's tooth: for Mr. Bodington had- told nze, that ere were many grinders, as well as tuSks} and that they were all ElmilaL to thofe fpecin3;ens which he had lent to me And fome time after, when I went to the Tower, and examined the whole colledion which had been Went over froln the Ohioj I law that the grinders were all of the farne kind. I examined two el;ephants jaws in my brother's colledrion: I examind the tuSks and grinders of the QMeen's-two elephants: and I examined a great number of Afrxcan elephants teeth at a warehoule.

From all thefe obferarations I was convinced that the grinder tooth, brought from the Ohio, was not that of an elephant; but of fome carnivorous animals larger than an ordinary elephant: -and I could ns doubt that the tuIk belonged to the fame animal. lshe only difEerence that I could obServe between it and a real elephant's tuCk was, that it was more twiRed, or had more of the fpiral curve, than any of the elephants t¢¢th wllich I had feen.

Some time after this, Dr. Franklin receisred a large box of the falne fort of bones froln the Ohio, by the way of Philadelphia. He infornled me of this, and told me likewifie that another large box of thoWe bones was fent to the liarl of Shelbur-ne, one of his

Ma1e{ly's



38 X

Majeftyts fecretaries of Ilate. I wtaited UpOll 9r.

Franklin, with fome other fiiends, and fiound thc bones to be exadcly fuch as I hcld feetl; and vttas therefore, confirmed in my former opinion.

wI'hen I waieed upon lJord Shelburne) and wras per- -mitted to examitle the bones whnich he had recelved. BeEldes the tufks and grinders, which were all fuch as I had feen, and- Rill ferved to contSrm me in my op- nion, there was the half at tlwe lower jaw of the animal with one laTge grinder ftill fixed in ltv This ,ias- bone was fo differentsfrom that of an elephant, ith in fortn and in fize, and correfponded Wo exadly with the other bones} and with my fuppofitton, that I was now fully contlnced, that the fuppoSed American elephant svas an animal of another fipecies, a pJ^eS- elephant, or anitnal gncogni>fn; which naturaliRs were unacquainted with. 1 imagined fartherX that this anzmal incogniturn would prove to be the fiuppoSed elephant of Siberta, and other parts of Europe; and that the real elephant- would be found to have been in all ages a native of Afia and Africa only.

The Earl of Shelburne, from his love of natural knowledge, {hewed a defire that the enqui-ry might be carried on; and did me the honour to offer his af- Iillance iru tranrmitting orders to Arnerica, for pro curing farther information about this matter. In con- fequence of this generoals ofEr, I propo{Ed that his lordl1lip {laould fend the following quetlions and orders, to any perfon in America, whom his lordnlip might think thc lDeI} qualified for condudcis-g fuch bufineEs.

Q_Cl'itS



[ 39]

Q eries and orders concerning the bones, called elephants bones, found in the marffi, called the Salt-Lick, near the River Ohio.

I. Do thofe bones appear tt) have lain upon the Sur- fice of the earth fim the firll? Or,

iI. Do they feem to have been originally at fome depth in the earth, and to have been afterwards expofied by the earth's falling away9 or by its being wafhed away by floodss &c. ?

III. How far is that part of the marlh from the river? How higll above the common fur- face of the water of the river? And does it appear probable, from the level and face of that mart1:, that an former times the river may have run where the bones are ?

IXT. How many elephants fkeletons have been fbund, as far as may be colleflred from the number of tu{ks) or other nlarks ? and at what di- Ilance from one another e

V. Tofend over, if poffilble, a whole head, or the moR entire parts of a head, efipecially of the upper jaw; and a foot, Qr the fmall bones of it, if they can be diRinguiffied; and any bones which have thofe parts pretty entire whlch once made a iolntv

VI, To make corred drdwings of any of the bones which are pretty entire, if, :on account of their fise, or tendernefsX they cannot be-fent over to England.

VllJ If the bones do noe lie in blended heaps, but thoSe of one fingle animal all togethera and



[ 4° ] at fiome little diRance from others, it might be of Service towards aCcertaining the fpecies of this animal, to es:pofe or uncover one compleat fett of bones} svithotxt tnoving any one of them from its place; and to lmake a general drawing of the wholey as they appear in that fltuation; and to fend as many of them as are tolerably perfed over to Eng_ land, with that drawing.

IJord Shelburne was pleaSed to take the care of this propofal upon himfelff and in proper tilne will probably receive fuch information as may be fa- tisfadcory.

I thought it would be adfiriSeable, in the mean time, to colled a}l the information I could upon this fubjeEt; and to lay the refult of fuch enquirses be fore this Society: that thofe who may have better opportunities might be invited to the fubjedr, and no longer leave fo capital an article of naeural hiRory uncertain.

I examined all the fofl }l teethX as they are called, in the Mufxeum of this Society, and the head and teeth of an hippopotamus. Then with Dr. Knight firll, and a fecond tizue with Dr. Solander, I examined all the foffsl teeth, and all the jaw-bonest and teeth of elephants, and hippopotamis and other lqrge animals, in the BritiM Mufaum; and fome like- wite in private colleEtions. In making this fearch, l met with grinders of the gncognitum that were found in the Brazils and Lima, as well as in differenS parts of Europe.

t



[4t ] At this time Lord Shelburne prefented the largeR

of the American tulk$, and the jaw-bone, and fome grinders, to tlle BritiM Mufaum; and his Lord(llip did me the honour to fend me the fmaller tuik, and two grinders.

I went to fbllr of thel principal workers and dealers in ivory, wsth whom I fasv and examined many hundreds of elephants teeth. Though they a11 aSured me, that the real elephants tteth have oRen a Ii:3iral twiR, like a cos^'s horil; they could not {hevv me one tooth Co twifted, in all their colledion3, at the time uhen I vif1ted them. Three of them did me the fivour to come to my houi; and they gave it as eheir opinion, that my two American tufks were genuine :ephants teethi One of them was even pofitive that they were African teeth. An¢ther worker in- ivory cut through that tuSk wllich Lord Shelburne gave mZe. It proved to be Ibund on the infide. He affiured me, that it was true elephantirie vory; and that workers in ivory colild readily diftin_ guifh- the genuineX by its grain and terEture, irom all: other bony fubftances whatever. He polithed itX we compared it with other pieces of genuine ivory ,, and indeed they appeared to be perfEdly filalilarv His opinion was afterwards wnfirmed by another ex perienced worker in ivory. Yet their opinions and what I fiw'with myown eyes, convinced me of this fift: onlys viz. that true or genuine ivory is the produEtion of two different animals; and not of the elephant alone.

Having thus colleered all the matertals to nrhsch I could have accefis, I carefuliv read what tlue Frencil Academicians Meffirs. Buflbn and Daubenton have wri¢ten on this queRion, in Qthe Hre *at2tt!lW

VOL . LVIII, G TGn] .



[ 42 ] Tom XI p. 86. &c. and p. 147. Ac. Tom. XIt. p. 63.; and Memoires de tHcad. Roy. zles Sc. Ann. 1762. p. 206. &c. But, inllead o-f meeting with fslds sshich could difprove my opinionX I found ob- iervations and arguments which confirm it. One very nzaterial fiti, svhich Mr. Daubentorl furniffies in fup_ port of tlly hypothefis, is the comparifon of the Anze- *ican thign- bone, xvith that of a real elephant; both of sZ1licll he has reprefented in figures} svhich appear to be done t.^ith accuracy. To me it feems nzoIt evident, that they are bones of trro diLlinEt fpecies. The vaS di1proportional thickneis of the zXmerican bone, compared -svith that of the elephant, is filrely rnore thall stre can attribute to the different proportions of bones, in thefaule fpecies, ssZllich arife frotn age, fex, or climate. But Mr. Daubentona to filpport his hypothetis, that the American fkmwr is elephantine, is obliged to refer tlle great difpro portion in tllicknefs to the caufes above-mentioned; and he affirlns tllat ill a11 other circutlzllances they are exadcly alike. Now, to Illy eye, there is nothing more evident, than that the two femorv differ widely in tlle Ihape and proi?ortlon of tlle head; in the lerXgth and direEtlon of the neck i alld in the figure and diteEtion of the great trochanter: fo that t}<ey have mal)y charaEteris which prove their belonging to aslimals of different Ipecses *

In order to prove to ttle fitisfaSion of the fociety, tbat the ;:nco3Zzitzlm of Atnerica is of a very diicrent i pecies from the elephant I have added tllree draxv iXluS of the jas^-bone of tlaae animal; whicil tlle curators of tlle Briti(ll Mufaum were pleafed to give tne leave to talie, and wlich Mr.-Ryrllldsyk exevuted wsth a [noft fctuptllotls exadneSs; and that the colnv

pSri6VI}



af 4Zaw:xwrram P8wz ns. E This content downloaded from 194.29.185.71 on Thu, 22 May 2014 14:07:12 PM

All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions


- E

43 j par;Con might be male svith eafe, I have added tJree fimilar drawings, taken from t}<e largeR of tlle tsro fllll-gl-own Eleplzants jaws which were in tny Lzro- ther's colleEtion; executed with the fame care, by the fame artiR; and dravvn to the fanae fcaleX nZze inches in the real objedr making oxe irs tlle figure.

TAB. IV. Fig. I. An outfide view of the half of the lower jaw of the American incognitum, which the Earl of Shelburne depofited in the Britilll :Ma- faum. i'rom the top of tlle condyle to tle anterior extremity, the bone mearured, in a Ilreight lineX thirty five inches: the bafis alone, in a Itreight line, tsro feet and four inclles.

Fig. II. The fame view of tlle fatne bone in a full-grown Elephant, drawn to the falue fcale.

Whoever vill take the pains to compare theSe two figures, with a critical eye, will fee tlsat they diGcr Co very mllch, not only in fizeX but in thesr general cha rafter, and in the particular parts and features, that lle cannot entertain a doubt of their being the jaws of two very different animals.

Fig. III. A view of the infide of the fame jaw-bone of the incognXZtzm.

Fig. IV. Aviewoftheinfideofthefame jaw-bone of the Elephant.

In comparing thefe tWQ views, the diicrence if pofl lble is Ilill more manifER.

Fig. V. A view -from above of the jaw of the in- cognituan.

Fig. VI. The fame view of the Elephant's jaw- bone,

It may now be fairly prefiumed that the America bones are proved to be certainly nOt elephantine

- G 2 and



[ 44 ] aizd xvhoever i5 of that oplnioll, will naturally fiufipedr that the Siberian bones are of the fame kind. I ima- gine tllat it svill be fbund, upon Ilridt enquiry, to be fo. But, as I have not the necellary matenals for dikung tllis queRion at prefent, I {hall only Rate a fEw fiEts, to nlew that there is bme ground br the OplIllOn,

I. All accounts, and particularly thofe of Mefl*. Gmelin BtlfFon, and Daubentona fay that ehe bones fUund in Siberia are larger tllan the bones of common Elephants. This would make us inclined to fuipeEt that they were not Elephants bones, but that they utere of elle Illcognit:um.

2. The Siberianfimar, as reprefented by Montieur

i . . . * * au zenton, ls sery 1 ie e ze amerlcan fefnar sn

fises Shape} and proportions. This circunzfEance appears to be almoI} a demon-

ltration, as we have befbre proved that the American fknur is not ehat of an Elephant. And in this argu- xnents svehave even the weight of Monfieur Dau- benton's opinion in our favour. For he (page 21 1,)

taklng it for granted that the Siberianfemur was un- doubtedly elephantine} re+sfrom the likeneli in fizes fhape and proportionsX that the American r iso Now, as we haste nlewn that the American xs not elephaneines his proof taken fFom the fize, {hape, and proportions ofthe two bones, muIt ferve to convince us that the Siberian thigh-bone is not of the Elep}lant, but of tI-e cwgntam.

3. Monfieur t)aubenton fbund a diffErence- be- tsvevn the telnporal bone brought from Siberia, and tllat of an Elephant. This likeutiSe is an argumen£

ln avour of our fuppoI1tion. 4. t1 1ze -



[ 45 ] 4. The fuppofed Elephant's tuR, which was

brought from Siberia by Mr. Bell, and prefented to Sir Hans S}oane, and of which we have a defcription and figure in the Memoirs of the Academy of Scien- ces atParis (An. I727. page 30g), isevidentlytwiRed like thca tulk of the incognitrz, and llot at all like any Elephant's tu{k which I have ever feen. This proof will have ,confiderable weight with thoSe who will take the trouble to examine that tuh in tlle Britith Mufaeum.

In the laIt place, it may be obSelved, that as thein- ogZzam of America has been proved to have been an animal different frotn the Elephant, and probably tlle fiatne as the Matntnouth of Siberia; and as grinder eeetl) like thofe of America have been dug up in various other parts of the world; it ffiould Seem to follow, that the zAcognit>7Zz in forlner times has beerl a very general inl-aabitant of the globe. And if this animal was indeed CaliniVOlOUS, which I believe cannot be doubt- ed-, tholJgh we may as philofophers regret it, as men wecannot but thankHearren tlaat its whole generatiQrx i6 probably extindt.

Receivcd



observations on the bones, commonly supposed to be elephants bones, which have been found near the...

Documents