48 ORDER VII. PACHYDERMATA. 



the goat, the ox, and the antelope, they are permanent, are 

 hollow, and increase yearly in size ^whilst in the camelopard 

 they are short, conical, and always covered by the skin of the 

 forehead, which extends over them, and by a quantity of thick, 

 bristly hairs. 



VII. Pachydermata. This order embraces all the animals 

 with hoofs which do not ruminate. They present a greater 

 variety than the ruminating animals, and are called Pachy- 

 dermata, because they are commonly possessed of a thick and 

 tough skin. They have generally incisive teeth in both jaws, 

 and often canine teeth or tusks of very great size. Of this 

 order are the elephant, the hippopotamus, the tapir, the hog, 

 the horse, the ass, &,c. 



The elephant has, properly speaking, five hoofs on each 

 foot, but they are so much enveloped by thick and callous 

 skin, as to be scarcely observable. It is destitute of incisive 

 teeth in either jaw; and, in place of the canine teeth in the 

 upper, is furnished with two large tusks, which sometimes 

 attain to an enormous size. These, which furnish the ivory 

 of commerce, are used by the animal for tearing off the 

 branches of trees, upon which it feeds, and sometimes as 

 instruments of attack and defence. From the shortness of its 

 neck, and the clumsiness of its head and jaws, the elephant is 

 incapable of taking up its food or drink from the ground with 

 the mouth like other animals. This difficulty is obviated by its 

 trunk or proboscis. This is a long and flexible organ, composed 

 of an almost infinite number of little muscles, which contract 

 and extend it at the animal's pleasure, and move it in every 

 possible direction. It is in fact a prolongation of the nostrils, 

 and is endowed with the senses of smelling and feeling to a 

 great degree of perfection. T.here is at its extremity a cavity 

 of a cup-like form, into which open two canals that run through 

 its whole length, and serve for the transmission of air and for 

 drawing up water. At the upper edge of this cavity, or cup, 

 is a small fleshy appendage, somewhat resembling a finger 

 in shape, which, by being opposed to the surface of the cup, 

 as the fingers are opposed to the palm of the hand, enables 

 the animal to make use of its trunk as an organ of touch. It 

 is nearly equal in this respect to the hand of the apes. From 

 its length and flexibility, the trunk is capable of being bent 

 double, and its extremity inserted within the jaws which are 

 below, at its base ; and in this way the animal's food, being 

 taken up by the trunk, is conveyed into the mouth ; whilst its 

 drink, being first sucked up into the cavities of the trunk, is 



