CHARACTERISTICS OF THE ELEPHANT. 



277 



popular belief. In Troilus and Cressida, Ulysses, speaking of the stiff demeanour of Aiax towards 

 Achilles, says : 



" The Elephant hath joints, but none for courtesv, 

 His legs are legs for necessity, not for flexure." 



And so in Chapman's drama (1605) of All Fools we read : 



" I hope you are no Elephant, you have joints." 

 These ideas originated from the peculiar gait of the Elephant. 



The shape of the Elephant is so familiar to every one that it is only necessary to remark that the 

 ponderous body, clad in a thick and almost hairless skin, 

 has the fore-quarters higher than the hinder parts, and that 

 the thigh in the hind leg is long and straight when the 

 animal is standing. The knee is visible below the body, 

 and bends so as to bring the foot in the rear. On com- 

 paring an Elephant and a Carnivore, and their skeletons as 

 well, the arrangement of the joints of the hind quarters 

 will be noticed to be different. In fact, the bend of the 

 Elephant's knee gives the gait of the huge creature an 

 appearance unlike that of any other animal. It stands on 

 the ends of its five toes, each of which is terminated by 

 comparatively small hoofs, and the heel-bone is a little 

 distance from the ground. Beneath comes the wonderful 

 cushion, composed of membranes, fat, nerves, and blood- 

 vessels, besides muscles, which constitutes the sole of the 

 foot. The fore-foot is larger than the hind one, and as the 

 creature does not require to climb, or to lift its fore-limb 

 very high, there is no collar-bone. In the young there is 

 more hair on the body than might have been expected, 

 and they have a set of milk teeth. 



The brain is greatly convoluted on the surface, but 

 the little brain, or cerebellum, is not covered by the brain 

 proper. 



The trunk or proboscis of the Elephant, from which the 

 name of the order to which this animal belongs is derived, 

 is certainly a remarkable and wonderful organ. It is really 

 a prolongation of the nose, of a sub-conical form, consist- 

 ing of two tubes divided by a septum. At the extremity 

 on the upper side, above the opening of the nostrils, is a 

 lengthened process to be looked upon in the light of a finger; beneath this finger is a tubercle, 

 opposable to it, and acting, so to speak, as a thumb. With this organ, which is nearly eight feet in 

 length, of considerable stoutness, and extreme sensibility, the Elephant is enabled to uproot or shake 

 trees, lift a cannon, or pick up a pin. By its aid, food and water are carried to the mouth, and when 

 necessary, it can be converted into a syringe or a shower-bath. The length of the organ does away 

 "with the necessity of a long neck, a short and muscular neck being absolutely required for the 

 support of the enormous head and tusks. 



The principal characters of the Indian species, as compared with the African, are the small ears, 

 concave forehead, small eye, lighter colour, and the possession of four instead of three nails or hoofs on 

 the hind foot. There is also a very remarkable difference in the teeth, those of the Indian species being 

 built up of a series of plates much more numerous and more closely packed together than in the 

 African species. 



THE INDIAN ELEPHANT.* There are but two living species of Elephant the Indian (Ekphas 

 indicus} and the African (Elephas africanus), although some naturalists have considered the Elephant 



* Elephas indicus. 



TRUNK OR PROBOSCIS OF ELEPHANT. 

 A, Muscles and Tendons ; B, Transverse Section. 



