PACIIYDERMATA. 151 



quisite for the alveoli of these tusks renders the upper jaw so high, and so 

 shortens the bones of the nose; that the nostrils in the skeleton are 

 placed near the top of the face; but in the living animal they are con- 

 tinued out into a cylindrical trunk, or proboscis, composed of several 

 thousands of small muscles, variously interlaced, extremely flexible, en- 

 dowed with the most exquisite sensibility, and terminated by an appendage 

 resembling a finger. This trunk gives to the Elephant almost as much 

 skill as the perfect state of his hand confers on the Monkey. With it he 

 seizes every thing he wishes to convey to his mouth, and pumps up his 

 drink, which he instantly jerks into his gullet, curving this admirable 

 organ in it, and in this manner supplies the necessity of a long neck, 

 which would be utterly unable to support his vast head and heavy tusks. 

 Within the parietes of the cranium, however, are several great cavities, 

 which render the head lighter; the lower jaw has no incisors whatever; 

 the intestines are very voluminous, the stomach simple, CEecum enormous, 

 and the mammse, two in number, placed under the chest. The young 

 suck with the mouth, and not with the trunk. 



But one living genus of the Proboscidiana is known, that of 



Elephas, Lin. 



Or the Elephant,* which comprehends the largest of the terrestrial 

 ]\Iammalia. The astonishing nature of his trunk, an instrument at once 

 agile and powerful, the organ of touch as well as of smell, forms a singu- 

 lar contrast with his clumsy aspect and heavy proportions ; and as this is 

 joined to a very imposing physiognomy, it has contributed to give exag- 



* The ancient history, as given by Cuvier, is extremely curious. " Homer speaks 

 frequently of ivory, but knew not the animal whence it was derived. The first of 

 the Greeks who saw the elephant, were Alexander and his soldiers, when they fought 

 with Porus; and they must have observed them well, for Aristotle gives a complete 

 history of this animal, and much truer in its details than those of our moderns. 

 After the death of Alexander, Antigonus possessed the greatest ninnber of elephants. 

 Pyrrhus first brought them into Italy 472 years after the foundation of Rome: they 

 were disembarked at Tarentum. The Romans, to whom these animals were entirely 

 strange, gave them the name of Leucanian Bulls. Curius Dentatus, who captured 

 four of these animals from Pyrrhus, brought them to Rome for the ceremony of his 

 triumph. These were the first which were there exhibited, but afterwards they be- 

 came in some measure common. Metellus having vanquished the Carthaginians in 

 Sicily, conducted their elephants to Rome on rafts, to the number of a hundred and 

 twenty according to Seneca, of a hundred and forty two according to Pliny. Clau- 

 dius Pulcher had combats of the elephant in the circus in 655; and similar combats, 

 either of elephant against elephant, of the elephant against the rhinoceros, the bull, 

 or the gladiator, were exliibited by Lucullus, Pompey, Ctesar, Claudius, and Nero. 

 Pompey harnessed them to his car during his triumph for Africa. Germanicus ex- 

 hibited some which danced in a rude fashion. In the reign of Nero they were seen 

 to dance on a rope, carrying at the same time a Roman knight. One may read in 

 jElian the extraordinary feats they were brought to execute. It is true they were 

 trained to them from their earliest age, and lEAmn says even, expressly, that these 

 dancing elephants were brought forth at Rome. This assertion, with the confirma- 

 tion it has received in our own day from the experiments of Mr. Corse, leads us to 

 hope it will be possible to multiply this useful animal in a state of domestication." 



