THE AUTOPSY OF AN ELEPHANT. 221 



the rear and occupies the same place arid position of 

 the one passing away. In this replacing process, it is 

 not uncommon for an entire tooth and part of another 

 to be present in one side of a jaw at the same time. 

 In several respects the dentition of the elephant is 

 peculiar. 



In the extinct mastodon and mammoth, and in 

 the living elephant, there is a deep notch in the 

 front aspect of the under jaw, through which it would 

 seem a long and free tongue portruded for the pur- 

 pose of gathering herbage, but the real fact of the 

 case is that the elephant has a restricted use of the 

 tongue, the tapering and conical end being free to a 

 limited extent. It has been said that the elephant is 

 tongue-tied; also that it has no frsenum linguae, and 

 is consequently free-tongued, but neither state really 

 exists. 



The pharynx of the elephant is capacious, and, 

 as in the ox, terminates in the oesophagus, with the 

 bulbous larynx projecting into it. The posterior 

 nares extend into the pharynx, but with a direction 

 and extension which make them almost communicate 

 with the larynx. At the upper.part of the pharynx 

 is a pocket in which, at a central point, terminates a 

 single canal that soon, by division and subdivision, 

 communicates with the extensive sinuses and air-cells 

 in the forehead, and other parts of the skull. 



The larynx of the elephant is very large, and 

 bears the general features of the same organ in the 

 horse. The trachea is a complete tube, the rings, 

 thirty in number, coming together, though not join- 

 ing, on the oesophageal surface, where in man there 

 exists an interposing membrane. When the elephant 



