HISTORY OF THE ELEPHANT. 117 



hollow, just as is. the case with the horn of an ox ; and as 

 each of these new layers is a complete cone of ivory, ex- 

 tending to the very point of the core, the solid part of the 

 tusk increases in length, in proportion to the general growth 

 of the whole. 



There are no cutting teeth in the lower jaw of the ele- 

 phant, or indeed any other teeth answering to the tusks of 

 the upper jaw. The rest of the teeth have their crowns, 

 generally speaking, flat, but from the way in which they 

 are constructed, they are well adapted for cutting and 

 bruising those hard substances upon which elephants are 

 at times obliged to feed. Those teeth which are the only 

 useful ones to the animals in preparing their food for the 

 stomach, may be compared to a set of irregular chisels 

 placed across the jaw, and supported in the intervals by a 

 substance much softer, and bearing some resemblance to 

 the ivory of the tusks, though probably not so hard, and 

 containing more animal matter. The protuberant ridges, 

 which we have said resemble irregular chisels, are formed 

 of the hardened enamel, and though from the quantity of 

 food which so large an animal requires, they are subject to 

 wear, they are always higher than the intervening sub- 

 stance by which they are supported ; but it is probable, 

 also, that this substance, being in so far elastic, gives way 

 a little when the food requires a powerful bite. 



In the Asiatic elephant, which is the only one of which 

 the progress has been accurately observed, the first grind- 

 ers, or milk-teeth, as they are called, begin to cut the sur- 

 face as early as nine or*ten days after the birth. Those 

 grinders consist of four laminse, or ridges of enamel ; but 

 they are altogether of soft texture, so that they soon wear 

 away. They are not shed, as is the case with the milk- 

 teeth of some other mammalia, and with the milk-tusks of 

 the elephant itself, but are worn away gradually while 

 the second set are coming forward ; and by the time that 

 these are full grown, which is the end of about the second 



