ii. i6. 51 



has to get food In the water,^ and yet must necessarily breathe, 

 inasmuch as it is a land animal and has blood ; seeing, also, 

 that its excessive weight prevents it from passing rapidly from 

 water to land, as some other sanguineous vivipara that breathe 

 can do, it becomes necessary that it shall be suited alike for life 

 in the water and for life on dry land. Just then as divers are 

 sometimes provided with instruments for respiration, through 

 which they can draw air from above the water, and thus may 

 remain for a long time under the sea,^ so also have elephants 

 been furnished by nature with their lengthened nostril ; and, 

 whenever they have to traverse the water, they lift this up above 

 the surface and breathe through it. For the elephant's proboscis, 

 as already said, is a nostril. Now it would have been impossible 

 for this nostril to have the form of a proboscis, had it been hard 

 and incapable of bending. For its very length would then have 

 prevented the animal from supplying itself with food, being as 

 great an impediment as the horns of certain oxen, that are said * 

 to be obliged to walk backwards while they are grazing. It is 

 therefore soft and flexible, and, being such, is made, in addition 

 to its own proper functions, to serve the office of the fore-feet; 

 nature in this following her wonted plan of using one and the 

 same part for several purposes.^ For in polydactylous quadrupeds 

 the fore-feet are not intended merely to support the body, but 

 also to serve as hands. But in elephants, though they must 

 be reckoned polydactylous, as their foot has neither cloven nor 

 solid hoof,^ the fore-feet, owing to the great size and weight of 

 the body, are reduced to the condition of mere supports ; and 

 indeed their slow motion and''' unfitness for bending make them 

 useless for any other purpose. A nostril, then, is given to the 

 elephant for respiration, as to every other animal that has a lung, 

 and is lengthened out and endowed with its power of coiling, 

 because the animal has to remain for considerable periods of 

 time in the water, and is unable to pass thence to dry ground 

 with any rapidity. But as the feet are shorn of their full office, 

 this same part is also, as before said, made by nature to supply 

 their place, and give such help as otherwise would be rendered 

 by them. 



As to other sanguineous animals, the Birds, the Serpents and 

 the oviparous quadrupeds, in all of them there are the nostril- 

 holes, placed in front of the mouth ; but in none are there any 

 659 b. 



