EPIDEMICS. 59 



There is an epidemic disease, corresponding to murrain in cattle, from 

 which wild and tame elephants suffer at long intervals. It attacked the 

 elephants in the Government stud at Dacca, in Bengal, about thirty years 

 ago, and carried off nearly fifty per cent of a total of upwards of three 

 hundred. It lasted, with varying virulence, for more than ten years. The 

 animals in best condition suffered most ; only two, both in poor condition, 

 are recorded as having recovered after seizure. The symptoms were, break- 

 ings-out and gatherings on the throat and legs, spots on the tongue, and 

 running from the eyes. With the cessation of the flow from the eyes the 

 animals died, usually on the second day after attack. In 1862 a similar 

 epidemic carried off large numbers of elephants in the Chittagong fore s 

 A few years later the herds in the Kakankote jungles in Mysore were 

 attacked ; but the mortality was not great, and the disease soon left. On 

 this occasion the fact of the elephants dying was well known to the 

 Kurrabas. 



The period of gestation in the elephant is said by experienced natives 

 to vary as the calf is male or female, being twenty-two months in the case 

 of the former, and eighteen in the latter. I cannot of my own observation 

 afford conclusive proof that such is the case, though I believe there is some 

 truth in the statement. I have known elephants to calve twenty months 

 after capture, the young always being males when eighteen months were 

 exceeded, and it was not known how long the mothers had been in calf 

 before capture. The female elephant receives the male again about eight 

 or ten months after calving. 



Male elephants of mature age are subject to periodical paroxysms, 

 supposed to be of a sexual nature. They are said to be must, or mad, when 

 under their influence. Fits of must differ in duration in different animals; 

 in some they last for a few weeks, in others for even four or five months. 

 Elephants are not always violent or untractable under their influence, being 

 frequently only drowsy and lethargic. The approach of the period of must is 

 indicated by the commencement of a flow of oily matter from the small 

 hole in the temple on each side of the head, which orifice is found in all 

 elephants, male and female. The temples also swell. The elephant fre- 

 quently acts somewhat strangely, and is dull and not so obedient as usual. 

 In the advanced stages the oily exudation trickles freely down from the 

 temples, which are then much swollen. 



On the first indications the elephant is strongly secured. If he becomes 

 dangerous his food is thrown to him, and water supplied in a trough pushed 

 within his reach. Fatal accidents are of common occurrence in cases of 

 must elephants getting loose. They usually attack man or any of their own 



