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Show 44 MR. J. W. CLARK ON THE NARWHAL. [Jail, l/i "common to the maxillary and intermaxillary," or contained "in the intermaxillary only " *, a mistake which F. Cuvier has copied f. The wall of the alveolus is so thin on the underside in a full-grown animal that it chips off in maceration (fig. 2). It has been asserted that the tusk of the Narwhal may be developed indifferently on the right side or on the left. This view was originally advanced by the two Cuviers and Lacepede J, a»d has since been brought forward again by Meckel§ and Rapp||, and more recently by Lilljeborg, who, in his paper on the Scandinavian Cetacea, says, " the long and sharp tusk, which is generally in the left side of the upper jaw, is spiral to the left. The spiral ridges run to the left, even when the tusk is in the right side of the upper jaw" If. In the Swedish original of the paper the passage runs as follows:- " The tusk, when on the right side of the upper jaw, has its spiral dextrorsal, instead of sinistrorsal" **. lt was to controvert this statement that Reinhardt wrote his paper. An examination of the ground of this assertion introduces us to the most fruitful of all sources of error in descriptions of the Narwhal, namely, erroneous figures. It is based on the woodcut given by Blasius ft> in which the right tusk is undoubtedly developed, with a dextrorsal spiral, and with the skull twisted towards the right instead of towards the left. But a careful examination shows, as Reinhardt points out, that Blasius has borrowed his Cetacean illustrations in general from G. Cuvier, from Brandt and Ratzeburg, and from F. Cuvier-and this one in particular, on a slightly reduced scale, from the last author, who has himself taken it from his brother's work, without observing that his engraver has reversed it in making the copy, the right side appearing as the left, and vice versd. The same mistake has been made by Owen + J, in borrowing Sir E. Home's figure ; and by Pander and D'Alton §§. Iu figures of the entire animal the spiral is as often dextral as sinistral; but these are, one and all, so full of errors of every sort that we need not stop to consider them more particularly ||||. It is true that the testimony of Fabricius may be advanced in * Ibid. p. 321. Comp. also ' Regne Animal,' ed. 1829, i. p. 292. t Histoire des Cetaces, p. 230. % Lacepede (Cetaces, p. 147), "Elle (la dent) est situee au cote droit ou au cote gauche de la machoire superieure." G. Cuvier (Oss. Foss. v. p. 321), " Dans le male il n'en sort ordinairement qu'une des deux (dents), le plus souvent celle du cote gauche." F. Cuvier (Cetaces, p. 237), " La defense .... qui se trou-verait tantot au cote droit, tantot au cote gauche." § Meckel, ' Vergleichende Anatomie,' ed. 1829, iv. p. 516. || Rapp, ' Die Cetaceen,' p. 46. ^[ Lilljeborg, ' Scandinavian Cetacea,' ed. Ray Society, p. 244. ** Reinhardt. /. c. tt Saugetbiere Deutschlands, p. 525, fig. 282. Compare G. Cuvier,' Ossemens Fossiles,' v. plate xxii.; Brandt and Ratzeburg, ' Medizinische Zooloeie-' and F. Cuvier, ' Cetaces,' plate 17. fig. 3. 6 ' \\ Odontography, plate 87. fig. 1. Compare Sir E. Home,' Lectures on Comparative Anatomy,' ii. pl. 42. §§ Skelette der Cetaceen, p. 2, tab. v. fig. a and b. ]| l| Compare, for instance, the figure in Trans. Roy. Soc. 1813, plate vii. fi". 2. |