PACHYDERMATA. 143 



manner in which they succeed each other is quite peculiar. The 

 old tooth is not pushed up by the new one, as is usually the case ; 

 but the new one appears behind the old one, urging it forward, 

 so that the latter wears away, and its place is finally taken by 

 the new comer. The teeth are of immense weight, and with the 

 tusk, are the most valuable part of the animal. (PI. IV. fig. 7. & 8.) 

 The tusk is hollow for a great part of its length ; the cavity con- 

 taining a vascular pulp, which supplies successive layers within, 

 as the tusk is worn down without. Blumenbach, (see his Compar- 

 ative Anatomy.) says that some modern naturalists consider the 

 tusks a species of horn; and that balls with which the animal has 

 been shot when young, have been found on sawing through the 

 tusks, imbedded in their substance, in a peculiar manner. These 

 organs, especially in the African species, are extremely large. 

 Cuvier has a table showing their great size. The largest recorded 

 in the table was a tusk sold at Amsterdam, which weighed 350 Ibs. 

 O.ie possessed by a merchant of Venice, was fourteen feet in 

 length. The largest in the Paris Museum is nearly seven feet 

 long, and about five and a half inches in diameter, at the largest 

 end. Professor Silliman, during his last lour in Europe, measur- 

 ed one in the British Museum, which was ten feet in length. 

 One described by Hartenfels, in his Elephantographia, (Gr. Ele- 

 phas, Elephant ; grapho, to write,) exceeded fourteen feet. Or- 

 dinarily, the tusk of the Indian Elephant does not weigh more 

 than from fifty to seventy-five pounds. The first or milk tusks, 

 never attain much size ; but are shed between the first and second 

 year ; and the permanent tusks of the female are very small, in 

 comparison with those of the male. The feet have five toes, 

 "encrusted," as Cuvier says, in the callous skin which covers 

 the foot, and appearing in the hoof by the nails alone The foot 

 is enclosed in a horny shoe or sock, which, when detached, pre- 

 sents a cavity that is quite tight, and used by orientalists as a ves- 

 sel to contain their food Professor Silliman measured the shoe 

 of an Elephant, in the British Museum, and found it five feet in 

 circumference. (Plate VI. fig. 9.) 



The immense weight of the head, renders indispensable a pow- 

 erful muscular apparatus, and to that end a large surface for the 

 insertion of muscles is necessary. The extended surface of the 

 head gives full room for the attachment of the muscles of the 

 neck. These muscles are most powerful, not only supporting 

 the neck, but assisting the animal in digging or employing the 

 tusks as means of defence. The vertebrae of the neck are more 

 fully developed than in the Ruminantia, and the spinous processes 

 in the vertebrae of the back, are lengthened and strong. The 



