PAGHYDERMATA. 97 



these toes round various objects, and of seizing with more or less force. The 

 total deficiency of this faculty characterises the hoofed animals. Their forms 

 and habits present much less variety than those of the Unguiculata, and they 

 can hardly be divided into more than two orders, those which ruminate, and 

 those which do not ; but these latter, which we designate collectively by the 

 term Pachydermata, admit of subdivision into families. 



The first is that of the Pachydermata which have a proboscis and tusks. 



FAMILY I. 

 PROBOSCIDIANA. 



The Proboscidians have five toes to each foot, very complete in the skeleton, 

 but so encrusted by the callous skin which surrounds the 

 foot, that their only external appearance is in the nails 

 attached to the edge of this species of hoof. They have 

 no canini or incisors properly so called, but in their incisive 

 bone are implanted two tusks, which project from the 

 mouth, and frequently attain to an enormous size. The 

 magnitude requisite 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, 

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

 resembling a finger. This proboscis is to the elephant what the hand is to the 

 monkey. With it he seizes every thing he wishes to convey to his mouth, 

 and sucks up the water he is to drink, which, by the flexure of this admirable 

 organ, is then poured into his throat ; thus supplying the want of a long neck, 

 whose weakness would have rendered it unable to support so large a head and 

 such 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, and the 

 mammae, two in number, placed under the chest ; the young suck with the 

 mouth, and not the trunk. 



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



ELEPHAS, Linneeus, 



Or the Elephant, which comprehends the largest of the terrestrial Mammalia. 

 After studying the habits of these animals for a long time, we have not found 

 them to surpass the dog, and some of the other carnivorous animals, in intelli- 

 gence. The Elephant is naturally of a mild disposition ;-they live in herds, 

 which are conducted by old males. 



H 



