NATURAL HISTORY. 147 



" Trampling his pa*fr through wood and brake, 

 And canes which crackling fall before his way, 

 O'ertopping the young trees, 

 On comes the elephant.'" SOUTHET. 



but a third provision, which is specially adapted for cleansing 

 the eye, but not for closing it. 



439. Why are the ears of the elephant unusually large? 



The office of the external ear in all animals is to facilitate 

 the transmission of sounds to catch the impulses of the air, and 

 by condensing and transmitting them to a given point, to impart 

 intensity to the impression. 



An animal which habitually browses upon trees must be liable 

 to have its hearing frequently interrupted by the crackling of 

 branches and leaves. It seems highly probable that the size of the 

 external ear favours the reception of distant sounds ; in other 

 words, lengthens the focus of the ear. If this conjecture be 

 correct, the ear is adapted to receive sounds from a distance 

 with less interruption from noises that are near at handy than 

 would be the case if the ear were smaller. 



440. The structure of the elephant's ear has been investigated -with great 

 accuracy by Sir Everard Home. (" Comparative Anatomy," vol. III., Lecture ix.) 

 The drum and every other part of the organ, are much larger in proportion than in 

 other quadrupeds, or in man ; and there is a remarkable difference in the 

 arrangement of the muscular fibres of the drum of the elephant's ear when 

 compared with man and some other quadrupeds. In the human ear these fibres 

 are radii of a circle, and in the horse, the hare, and the cat, they are of an uniform 

 length. But in the elephant's ear these fibres are so placed that some are more 

 than double the length of others. Sir E. Home argues from this remarkable 

 construction that the elephant has not a musical ear ; but that it has a peculiar 

 compensating power in this form of fibre, as its slower vibrations enable it to hear 

 sounds at a greater distance ; and this opinion is still further sustained by the 

 structure of the different parts of the internal organs, more particularly the cells 

 between the tables of the skull. Sir E. Home illustrates his position that the 

 elephant hears farther than other animals, and particularly that his hearing is me re 

 acute than that of man, by several interesting narratives. 



We may also perceive the utility of the large flap of the ear as regards the 

 VTtinietry and appearance of the animal. The huge form of the elephant is broken 

 "by less lines of beauty than may be observed in most other quadrupeds, and the 

 large ear, which falls gracefully over the shoulders, at once presents a point of 

 relief, and gives character and dignity to the whole. 



