On the milk tusks, and organ of hearing of the dugong

• Published in: Abstracts of the Papers Printed in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: The Royal Society 1833
• Subjects: The Tusk; narwhal*
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rspl.1815.0125; https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/pdf/10.1098/rspl.1815.0125

The skull upon which the following observations were made, was sent to the author from Sumatra by Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles, and is the only perfect specimen in Europe. The milk tusks were first examined; and as their points only were visible, one of the bony canals in which the tusk is contained was laid open: it was removed from its socket, and cut through longitudinally, when it appeared similar to the milk tusks of the narwhale and elephant, and like them deficient in external smoothness as compared with the permanent tusks. The milk tusk of the dugong is peculiar in having a shallow cup attached to its base, apparently for the purpose of receiving the point of the permanent tusk as soon as formed; and as the milk tusk advances in the act of being shed, the other may be directed forwards in the same course, which differs from that in which it set out.