Notes on the Structure and the Development of 
the Elephant’s Placenta. 
By 
Richard Assheton, M.A., 
Lecturer on Biology in the Medical School. of Guy’s Hospital, 
University of London ; 
And 
Thomas G. Stevens, M.D., 
Demonstrator and Assistant Lecturer on Biology in the Medical School 
of Guy’s Hospital. 
With Plates 1—5. 
Introduction. 
On August 31st, 1902, an elephant belonging to Messrs. 
Sanger and Sons gave birth to a calf in the gardens of the 
Zoological Society of London under circumstances related by 
the Society’s Prosector, Mr. F. E. Beddard, F.R.S., in the 
‘ Proceedings’ of the year 1902, vol. ii. 
The birth of an elephant in this country is so rare an event 
that only two former occasions have been recorded; and at 
no previous time has an elephant been born in the gardens 
of the Zoological Society. The opportunities of investigating 
the minute structure of the placenta have therefore occurred 
but seldom ; in fact, the only accounts we have of the micro- 
scopic features of the elephant’s placenta are those by Sir 
William Turner in 1876, and by Dr. H. C. Chapman in 1880. 
The latter author, writing in 1899 (Chapman, 4), referring 
to the specimen described by him in 1880, remarks that it is 
vot, 49, pART 1.—NEW SERIES. if 
