ABOUT ELEPHANTS. 487 



and a characteristic pattern is thus developed on the surface of the 

 molars of each species of living elephant. Thus, in the Indian ele- 

 phant, the molars exhibit a series of cross-ridges, which are more nu- 

 merous than those of the African species, while in the latter form the 

 enamel plates form a distinctly lozenge-shaped pattern. It sometimes 

 happens that in elephants kept in captivity the succession of the teeth 

 is disarranged, from the fact that the molars are not worn away fast 

 enough, and the succeeding teeth are displaced, thereby causing de- 

 formity of the jaws. 



The elephants were included in the older systems of classification 

 in a somewhat heterogeneous group of quadrupeds named the Pachy- 

 dermata. That this order now abolished and divided to form several 

 new groups was motley enough in its representation is readily seen, 

 when we discover that the rhinoceroses, hippopotami, and other forms 

 were included within its limits along with the elephants themselves. 

 The technical name " Pachydermata " related to the thick skin which 

 invests the bodies of the animals just mentioned, and in the elephants 

 this characteristic is, of course, extremely well represented. The thick 

 skin hangs in folds on the body, while the typical hair-covering which, 

 by natural right, all quadrupeds possess, is but sparsely developed. It 

 would seem, however, that the young elephant possesses a much more 

 profuse covering of hairs than the adult. Such a statement is consist- 

 ent with the general biological law which holds that the young form 

 exhibits the primitive characters of the race more typically than the 

 adult. In this view of matters the young elephant is nearer the type 

 of its ancestors than the adult ; and in the young whales the same 

 remark holds good ; since the youthful cetaceans may possess a sparse 

 covering of hairs, such as the adults do not exhibit. 



Speaking of the comparative hairlessness of the elephant and rhi- 

 noceros, Mr. Darwin remarks that, "as certain extinct species (e. g., 

 mammoth) which formerly lived under an Arctic climate, were covered 

 with hair, it would almost appear as if the existing species of both 

 genera had lost their hairy covering from exposure to heat. This 

 appears the more probable, as the elephants in India which live on 

 elevated and cool districts are more hairy than those on the lowlands." 



The social history and psychology of the elephant race form of 

 themselves topics wide enough to fill a volume. From the earliest 

 times, these animals have been enlisted by man in the service of war, 

 or as beasts of burden, as aids in the chase, or even in the brutal and 

 demoralizing sports of the ancient arena. The value of ivory in the 

 earliest ages must have given rise to elephant-hunting as a source of 

 gain and profit ; and the inroads of man upon the species have natu- 

 rally caused not merely a limitation in the numbers of these animals, 

 but have likewise served to modify, in a very marked fashion, their 

 geographical distribution. But the utility of these great animals to 

 man depends as much upon their docilitv and tractable nature as 



