OP ANIMAL BODIES. 107 



opened for the breath every second of time,) excites, in the 

 whole company, not only alarm by its danger, but surprise 

 by its novelty. Not two guests are choked in a century.* 



There is no room for pretending, that the action of the 

 parts may have gradually formed the epiglottis : I do not 

 mean in the same individual, but in a succession of genera- 

 tions. Not only the action of the parts, has no sach ten- 

 dency, but the animal could not live, nor consequently the 

 parts act, either without it, or with it, in a half formed state. 

 The species was not to wait for the gradual formation or 

 expansion of a part, which was, from the first, necessary to 

 the life of the individual. 



Not only is the larynx curious, but the whole wind-pipe 

 possesses a structure, adapted to its peculiar office. It is 

 made up, (as any one may perceive by putting his fingers 

 to his throat) — of stout cartilaginous ringlets, placed at 

 small and equal distances from one another. Now this is 

 not the case with any other of the numerous conduits of 

 the body. The use of these cartilages is to keep the pas- 

 sage for the air constantly open ; which they do mechanic- 

 ally. A pipe with soft membranous coats, liable to col- 

 lapse and close when empty, would not have answered here ; 

 although this be the general vascular structure, and a 

 structure which serves very well for those tubes, which are 

 kept in a state of perpetual distension by the fluid they in- 

 close, or which afford a passage to solid and protruding 

 substances. 



Nevertheless, (which is another particularity well worthy 

 of notice,) these rings are not complete, that is, are not car- 

 tilaginous and stiff all round ; but their hinder part, which 

 is contiguous to the gullet, is membranous and soft, easily 

 yielding to the distensions of that organ occasioned by the 

 descent of solid food. The same rings are also bevelled olT 



* The same general structure of these parts is found in all other 

 aiumals of the same class with mankind, but there is a singular varia- 

 tion from it in the elephant, by which, if possible, the influence of a de- 

 riving intelligence is more wonderfully exemplified than in the ordi- 

 nary structure. It is well known that this animal drinks by sucking 

 up the liquid into its trunk, and then after thursting the end of it into 

 its mouth, blowing the liquid into its throat. In this case, the act of 

 blowing through the trunk and swallowing, must be both going on at the 

 same instant, and not in successive instants as in man. The liquid 

 must be passing down the throat, while the epiglottis is open and the 

 air issuing. In order to provide against interference, a channel is pro- 

 vided on each side of the epiglottis, along which the drink passes 

 quietly on, without running into the wind pipe. Ed. 



