VOL. XXVII.] PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. 5SQ 



little inclined to lie down, to acquire such a posture. The third opinion is, 

 that the natural sagacity of the animal disposes the female to go into the ditch ; 

 and both fore and hind legs seem to be so articulated as to favour this: for 

 when the female would lower her body, she has only to stretch forward her 

 fore feet, and then the articulation of the humerus with the cubitus will bend 

 backward ; and then to bring back her hind feet, so as to bend the knees for- 

 ward, by which she can bring the fore part of the body so low, as to make the 

 nates protuberant, and bend the hind legs, thereby to put the vagina in a con- 

 venient position for reception of the penis, according to that of Aristotle, 

 subsistit faemina, clunibusque submissis, insistit pedibus ac innititur; and else- 

 where, flectit certe suos posteriores poplites modo hominis.* 



The natural food of the elephant is grass, vegetables, leaves, and twigs of 

 trees, &c. and when these are wanting, they dig up roots with their tusks. 

 They are very fond of cucumbers and melons, and possess a particular 

 instinct in avoiding whatever herbs may be hurtful to them. They never ap- 

 proach any grass that has been trampled on. by men, for fear of snares. When 

 they are tamed, they eat hay, oats, barley, or such other food as oxen and 

 horses. The elephant drinks a great quantity of water, which it sucks up by 

 the trunk, and when that is full, it empties it in the mouth. It naturally 

 affects muddy water, rather than clear: when tame, it drinks clear water well 

 enough. When they are to go to battle, they give them spirituous liquors, 

 such as wine, &c. in order to make them drunk and furious, as appears from the 

 history in the third book of Maccabees, chap. vi. It has a very acute sense of 

 smelling, by which it readily finds out its food. It was pleasant to observe, 

 that when people came to see our elephant with apples in their pockets, it 

 pulled them out, to the astonishment of those who had them. 



That the elephant is animal vastissimum, I shall readily acknowledge with 

 Franzius; but cannot allow that it is deformed, since those due proportions, 

 laid down by the Author of nature, are as well observed in this, as in any other 

 animal ; for nothing can be deformed, but what swerves from a general rule. 

 The elephant has a thick short head, short neck, long nose, or proboscis, 

 hanging almost to the ground; a back somewhat protuberant, a short and 

 round body, a long tail, four thick round legs, like so many columns supporting 

 his vast weight; and short feet, those before being broader and rounder, and 

 those behind more long and narrow, each shod with 4 hoofs; a small narrow 



* The mode of copulation of the male and female elephant is described in Captain Percival's 

 '* Account of the Island of Ceylon," 2d edition, page 293, on the authority of a respectable eye- 

 witness. 



