VI. On the megatherium (Megatherium Americanum, Cuvier and Blumenbach). Part II.— Vertebrœ of the trunk

In commencing the description of the skeleton of the Megatherium, now in London, Plate XVII., which is the most complete that has yet reached Europe, a brief statement may be premised of the chief steps which have led to the restoration of the species to which it belongs. Cuvier, in communicating to the 'Annales du Muséum’ (t. v. 1804) a translation of the first memoir on this subject—that, viz. by Garriga and Bru, published at Madrid in 1796,—gives all the requisite details respecting the discovery of the skeleton therein described, and adds his own more important deductions as to its affinities from an examination and comparison of the plates of the Spanish work.