SOS 



ELEPHANT. 



ELEPHANT. 



606 



More than one molar tooth and part of another are never to be seen 

 through the gum in the Elephant. When the anterior tooth is gradu- 

 ally worn away by mastication, the absorption of its fangs and alveolus 

 takes place, while the posterior tooth advances to occupy its position ; 

 then comes a third to take the place of the second tooth, which under- 

 goes the same process, and so on, as we have stated, for at least eighl 

 times. Each succeeding tooth is larger than its predecessor. Thus, the 

 first, or milk-grinder, which cuts the gum soon after birth, has but 

 four transverse plates (denticuli) ; the second is composed of eight or 

 nine, and appears completely when the animal is two years old ; the 

 third consists of twelve or thirteen, and comes at the age of six years ; 

 and in the fourth up to the eighth grinder both inclusive, the number 

 of plates varies from fifteen to twenty-three. It would, seem that every 

 new tooth takes at least a year more for its formation than its prede- 

 cessor. As the tooth advances gradually, a comparatively small por- 

 tion only is through the gum at once. A molar tooth, composed ol 

 twelve or fourteen plates, shows only two or three of these through 

 the gum, the others being imbedded in the jaw, and in fact the tooth 

 is complete anteriorly, where it is required for mastication, while pos- 

 teriorly it is very incomplete. As the laminae advance, they are suc- 

 cessively perfected. An elephant's molar tooth is therefore never to 

 be seen in a perfect state ; for if it is not worn at all anteriorly, the 

 . posterior part is not formed, and the fangs are wanting : nor is the 

 structure of the back part of the tooth perfected until the anterior 

 portion is gone. 



Elephants have no canine teeth, but in the upper jaw there are two 

 incisors, better known by the name of tusks. These enormous weapons 

 are round, arched, and terminate in a point ; and their capsule is 

 always free, so that the tusk continues to grow as long as the animal 

 lives. The structure of the ivory of which it is composed differs from 

 other tusks ; and a transverse section presents striae forming the arc 

 of a circle from the centre to the circumference, and, in crossing each 

 other, curvilinear lozenges which occupy the whole surface. The 

 tusk is hollow within for a great part of its length, and the cavity 

 contains a vascular pulp, which supplies successive layers internally 

 as the tusk is worn down externally. Blumenbach, in his ' Compara- 

 tive Anatomy,' observes, that not to mention other peculiarities of 

 ivory, which have induced some modern naturalists to consider it as 

 ft species of horn, the difference between its structure and that of the 

 bone of teeth is evinced in the remarkable pathological phenomenon 

 resulting from balls with which the animal has been shot when 

 young being found, on sawing through the tooth, imbedded in its 

 substance in a peculiar manner. Haller employed this fact, both to 

 refute Duhamel's opinion of the formation of bones by the periosteum, 

 like that of wood by the bark of a tree, as well as to prove the con- 

 stant renovation of the hard parts of the animal machine. It is still 

 more important in explanation of that ' nutritio ultra vasa,' which is 

 particularly known through the Petersburgh prize dissertation. Blu- 

 menbach farther states that the fact above mentioned may be seen in 

 Buffon (4to. ed., torn. xi. p. 161); in Oalandat 'Over de Olyphants 

 Tanden;' in the ' Verhandelingen der Genootsch, te Vlissingen,' 

 torn. ii. p. 352 ; and in Bonn. ' frescr. Thesauri Hoviani,' p. 146. In 

 all these cases, according to Blumenbach, the balls were of iron ; and 

 he adds that he possesses a similar specimen. In the cases we have 

 seen, the balls were also of iron. " But," continues Blumenbach, 

 "there is a still more curious example in my collection, of a leaden 

 bullet contained in the tusk of an East Indian elephant, which must 

 have been equal in size to a man's thigh, without having been flattened. 

 It lies close to the cavity of the tooth ; its entrance from without is 

 closed, as it were, by means of a cicatrix ; and the ball itself is sur- 

 rounded apparently by a peculiar covering. The bony matter has 

 been poured out on the side of the cavity in a stalactitic form." Upon 

 this Lawrence well remarks that the facts here recounted have been 

 sometimes brought forward in order to prove the vascularity of the 

 teeth ; a doctrine which is refuted by every circumstance in the 

 formation, structure, and diseases of these organs. When a bullet 

 has entered the substance of the body, the surrounding lacerated and 

 contused parts do not grow to the metal and become firmly attached 

 to its surface, but they inflame and suppurate in order to get rid of 

 the offending matter. " If the ivory be vascular," asks Mr. Lawrence, 

 " why do not the same processes take place in it ? " " We can explain 

 very satisfactorily," writes Mr. Lawrence in continuation, " how a 

 bullet may enter the tusk of an elephant, and become imbedded in 

 the ivory without any opening for its admission being perceptible. 

 These tusks are constantly growing during the animal's life by a 

 deposition of successive laminae within the cavity, while the outer 

 surface and the point are gradually worn away ; and the cavity is 

 filled for this purpose with a vascular pulp, similar to that on which 

 teeth are originally formed. If a ball penetrate the side of a tusk, 

 CTOM its cavity, and lodge in the slightest way on the opposite side, 

 it will become covered towards the cavity by the newly-deposited 

 layers of ivory, while no opening will exist between it and the surface 

 to account for its entrance. If it have only sufficient force to enter, 

 it will probably sink by its own weight between the pulp and the 

 ts at the bottom of the cavity. It there becomes 

 surrounded by new layers of ivory ; and as the tusk is gradually 

 worn away and supplied by new depositions, it will soon be found in 

 the centre of the solid part of the tooth. Lastly, a foreign body may 



enter the tusk from above, as the plate of bone which forms its socket 

 is thin ; if this descends to the lower part of the cavity, it may become 

 imbedded by the subsequent formations of ivory. This must have 

 happened in a case where a spear-head was found in an elephant's 

 tooth. The long axis of the foreign body corresponded to that of the 

 cavity. No opening for its admission could be discovered, and it is 

 very clear that no human strength could drive such a body through 

 the side of a tusk." (' Phil. Trans.,' 1801, part i.) 



The great size to which these tusks grow may be judged of by 

 examining the table published by Cuvier in his ' Ossemens Fossiles," 

 torn. i. p. 57. It is generally considered that the tusks of the African 

 Elephant are the largest ; but with regard to the table, Cuvier observes 

 that the African tusks could not be distinguished from those of the 

 Indies, and that there is not the certainty that could be wished in the 

 measures employed. According to Mr. Corse, the tusks of the Indian 

 Elephant seldom exceed 72 Ibs. in weight, and do not weigh beyond 

 50 Ibs. in the province of Tiperah, which produces thousands of ele- 

 phants. There are however in London tusks which weigh 150 Ibs., 

 probably from Pegu ; for it is from Pegu and Cochin-China that the 

 largest Indian elephants and tusks are brought. The largest recorded 

 in Cuvier's table was a tusk sold at Amsterdam, according to Klokner, 

 which weighed 350 Ibs. : this is stated on the authority of Camper ; 

 and one possessed by a merchant of Venice, which was 14 feet in 

 length, and resting on the authority of Hartenfels, in his ' Elephanto- 

 graphia." The largest in the Paris Museum is nearly 7 feet long, and 

 about 54 inches in diameter at the large end. These tusks have different 

 degrees of curvature. 



Mr. Corse, speaking of the Asiatic Elephant, states that the first or 

 milk tusks of an elephant never grow to any size, but are shed between 

 the first and second year. These, as well as the first grinders, are 

 named by the natives ' Dood-kau-Daunt,' which literally signifies 

 milk-teeth. The tusks which are shed have a considerable part of the 

 root or fang absorbed before this happens. The tune at which the 

 tusk cuts the gum seems to vary. Mr. Corse knew a young one which 

 had his tusks when about five months old, while those of another did 

 not cut the gum till he was seven months old. Those tusks which 

 are deciduous, observes the same author, are perfect and without any 

 hollow at the root, in a foetus which is come to its full time, and at 

 this period the socket of the permanent tusk begins to be formed on 

 the inner side of the deciduous tusk : he gives the following examples 

 of the progress of this part of the dentition : A young elephant shed 

 one of his milk-tusks on the 6th of November, 1790, when near thirteen 

 months old, and the other on the 27th of December, when about four- 

 teen months old ; they were merely two black-coloured stumps, when 

 shed ; but, two months afterwards, the permanent tusks cut the gum, 

 and on the 19th of April, 1791, they were an inch long, but black and 

 ragged at the ends. When they became longer and projected beyond 

 the lip, they soon were worn smooth by the motion and friction of 

 the trunk. Another young elephant did not shed his milk-tusks till 

 he was sixteen months old. The permanent tusks of the female are 

 very small in comparison with those of the male, and do not take 

 their rise so deep ia the jaw ; but they use them as weapons of offence 

 in the same manner as the male, that is, by putting their head 

 above another elephant, and then pressing their tusks down into the 

 animal. 



In the lower jaw there are neither incisors nor canines, and the 

 molar teeth resemble those to which they are opposed. 



Cuvier comes to the conclusion that the females of the African 

 species have large tusks, and that the difference between the sexes in 

 this respect is much less than in the Indian elephants ; but Burchell 

 attributes the want of success of the elephant-hunters whom he met 

 with to their having only fallen in with females whose tusks were 

 small. 



Pursuing our inquiry into the general structure of the skeleton, we 

 shall find a marked difference in the external appearance of the skulls 

 of the African and Indian species. 



Here we see that the almost pyramidical form of the skull in the 

 Indian species is strongly contrasted with the more rounded form and 

 contour of that of the African species. The front of the head is 

 concave in the Indian species, while in the African it is rather convex ; 

 there are besides other differences. 



Internally we find a beautiful provision for increasing the surface 

 necessary for the attachment of muscles combined with strength and 

 lightness. 



The other parts of the skull most worthy of note are the nasal 

 bones, of which the elephant possesses only a kind of imitation : the 

 lachrymal bones are entirely wanting. The cervical vertebrae form a 

 short and stiff series, allowing hardly more than a "limited motion 

 of the head from side to side, a more extended action being rendered 

 unnecessary by the flexibility of the trunk, and ft firm support for 

 the head being the principal object to be attained. The spinous pro- 

 cesses of the anterior dorsal vertebra; are exceedingly long for the 

 attachment of the great suspensory ligament of the neck (ligamentum 

 nuchae, or pax -wax). Blumenbach puts the number of ribs, and 

 consequently of dorsal vertebrae, at 19 pairs, observing that this, at 

 east, is the case in the skeleton of the Asiatic Elephant at Cassel. 

 Slair, he remarks, found the same number in the individuals of which 

 10 has given an account ; and a manuscript Italian description of the 



