114 



NATURE 



{jftme lo, 1875 



tains a telegraphic intimation from the Smithsonian 

 Institution of the discovery of a new minor planet by 

 Prof. Peters in R.A. lyh. 21m., and N.P.D. 113"=' 31'. It 

 is as bright e.s stars of the eleventh magnitude, and is 

 No. 144 of this group of planets. 



[Since the above was in type we receive notice of the 

 discovery of No. 145, by Prof. Peters, in R.A. 17'^ 14'", 

 N.P.D. 1 1 3°-8', apparently on June 4. Motion towards 

 S. : twelfth magnitude.] 



LECTURES A T THE ZOOLOGICAL GARDENS * 



VJ. — Mr. Flower on Elephants. 

 V^T'ITH the exception of the domesticated species few 

 * * mammals are so well known to everyone as the 

 Elephant, few are more interesting from their sagacity 

 and usefulness to mankind, and few are so wholly 

 separated and isolated from all other forms which now 

 exist. Formerly the Elephants were grouped with the 

 Rhinoceroses or with the Pigs, but a better knowledge of 

 their structure has shown that they form an entirely 

 distinct order, to which the name Proboscidea has been 

 given, on account of the trunk, or proboscis, which is 

 one of their most striking features. Two well-marked 

 species of Elephant exist, the Indian {Elephas indictis) 

 and the African {E. africanus). 



The former is found in a wild state throughout the 

 forest-lands of the greater part of India, Ceylon, Burmah, 

 Siam, Cochin-China, the Malay Peninsula, and Sumatra, 

 except where it has been driven back by the advance of 

 civilisation ; whether it is indigenous to any of the other 

 islands of the Eastern Archipelago is doubtful. The 

 Elephant of Sumatra and Ceylon has been separated by 

 Schlegel as a distinct species, E. sumatranus, but Dr. 

 Falconer and others have shown that their differences, 

 though appreciable, do not amount to specific characters. 

 The Indian Elephant has been domesticated from the 

 earliest ages— in India before historic times, and also by 

 the ancient Persians. It has been used in war, in 

 carriage, and in state pageants, and is still much em- 

 ployed in road-making and bridge-building, where its 

 strength, its sagacity, and its adroitness in piling logs, 

 lifting weights, and similar operations, render its services 

 invaluable. 



The second species inhabits Africa, south of the Sahara, 

 from the Indian Ocean to the Atlantic, and formerly 

 extended its range to the Cape of Good Hope. In 

 ancient times it was domesticated by the Carthaginians, 

 and was the species generally imported by the Romans, 

 but no succeeding African race has had the sagacity to 

 make use of it. It is killed in vast numbers for the sake 

 of its ivory, of which an enormous quantity is annually 

 brought to Europe ; and in so wasteful a fashion is this 

 slaughter carried on, that the species will probably soon 

 be exterminated. Although so well known to the ancients, 

 it is only quite recently that live African elephants have 

 been brought to Europe in modern times. There was 

 one in Antwerp in 1863, and two years later a pair were 

 obtained by the Zoological Society, which are still alive 

 and well, the male having attained a height of ten feet. 

 Since this, numbers of these animals have been imported 

 down the Nile from the Soudan, and they are now com- 

 mon in menageries. 



In size there is not much difference between the two 

 species, and the maximum height would appear to be 

 about eleven feet ; an Indian elephant shot by Sir Victor 

 Brooke reached that stature, which was not exceeded by 

 the tallest of eleven hundred individuals measured by 

 Dr. Falconer. In external appearance the two species 

 are easily distinguishable. The African elephant has a 

 lighter and more shapely head, a less protuberant fore- 

 head, and a larger eye, but its most striking peculiarity is 

 the enormous size of its ears. It also stands proportion- 

 ately higher on its legs, and has a more arched back. 



* Continued from p. 93. 



The number of nails is different, being four on the fore 

 feet and three on the hind, whereas in the Indian species 

 these feet have four and five nails respectively. Sports- 

 men say that the height of an elephant always equals 

 double the circumference of the foot, and this is confirmed 

 by the individuals now in the Gardens ; in the male the 

 proportion is absolutely correct, and in the female it is 

 within three inches. The mental characters of the Indian 

 and African elephants are different, the latter being 

 bolder, quicker, and more obstinate. 



In considering the general structure of the Elephants, 

 the first peculiarity to be noticed is the trunk, which is 

 really an enormous prolongation of the nose and upper 

 lip. It is almost entirely composed of a complex mass 

 of muscles which give it its great power and flexibility, 

 and it is amply supplied with nerves. The great massive- 

 ness of the head is not owing to the size of the brain, but 

 to huge air-cells in the body of the bones, which are an 

 extraordinary development of the frontal sinuses. This 

 expansion is necessary to afford room for the attachment 

 of the great muscles which wield the head and proboscis. 



The teeth of the Elephant are very peculiar. The 

 tusks, which answer to the middle incisors of man, some- 

 times reach a weight of 150 lbs., or even, it is said, of 

 200 lbs. each. They have no enamel, being entirely com- 

 posed of ivory — a peculiarly fine, tough, and elastic 

 dentine — and are persistent in growth throughout life. 

 Thus, if bullets happen to lodge in the pulp-cavity they 

 are carried down by the growth into the tusk itself, in 

 which they are sometimes found embedded. The molars 

 are six in number in each side of each jaw, and are com- 

 posed of alternated transverse plates of enamel, dentine, 

 and cement. Owing to the different hardness of these 

 materials they wear unequally, and produce cross ridges 

 on the surface of the tooth, which form it into an admir- 

 able grindstone for crushing the food. The molars are 

 not deciduous, but move forward in a curious way ; only 

 one (or at most a part of two) is in use at once, and each 

 as it is worn away is pushed forwards by its successor, 

 which eventually takes its place. The six teeth last 

 out the life of the animal, which is said to extend to a 

 hundred years or more. In the Asiatic species the plates 

 of the molars are much finer and more regularly parallel 

 than in the African elephant, in which they are fewer in 

 number and have somewhat of a lozenge shape. 



It was formerly a widespread delusion that the Elephant 

 had no joints, and even now many people believe that 

 their joints move in the contrary way from those of other 

 quadrupeds. The explanation of this lies in the fact that 

 the elbow and knee of an elephant are much nearer the 

 ground than those of a horse or a cow, and are thus con- 

 fused by a casual observer with the so-called "knee " (the 

 true wrist) and "hock" (the true ankle) of the latter 

 animals. 



Although the Elephants are now so isolated among 

 animals, it was not always so. They have many fossil 

 relativ^es whose range once extended all over Europe 

 (including Britain), Asia, North America, and part of 

 South America. Of these the most generally known is 

 the Mammoth, of which specimens have been so wonder- 

 fully preserved in the Siberian ice, and which was closely 

 aUied to the living Asiatic species. Going further back 

 we have the Mastodon, in which the grinding teeth were 

 much less differentiated and more like those of other 

 animals. Beyond this it is difficult to trace their relation- 

 ships. Possibly they may have been through the Dino- 

 therium, or through some of the wonderful creatures 

 whose remains have recently been discovered in the 

 Eocene formations of America. But it is clear that in the 

 Elephants we have the last remaining representatives of 

 a mighty and once numerous race which have played 

 their part in nature and disappeared, and it is only too 

 probable that the survivors also are doomed to speedy 

 extinction. 



