562 PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [aNNO I7IO. 



of, or rather thicker than, common vellum, with its inner surface excavated, 

 or pitted, • like a thimble, or in a honey-comb. Among the interstices of 

 these excavations, the ramifications and divarications of the blood vessels are 

 obvious. At every two lines or -^ of an inch distance, for the most part are 

 observed protuberances, composed of 5, 6, or 7 columns, joining and forming 

 a pyramid or cone; in the top of which is the pore or ductus, mentioned by 

 Dr. Moulins, through which the hairs pass; they are nothing but the inter- 

 stices of the favi, or depressions arising in the cuticula, and are impacted in 

 the cutis, for the better reception of the hair. 



To the outside of this cuticula adhere the scabs, which I rather take to be a 

 supervenient distemper incident to this animal, when out of its own climate, 

 occasioned by the constriction of the pores from cold, than anywise natural to 

 it. Authors tell us, that the first thing they do when they begin to tame 

 them, is to anoint them with oil, by which they keep their skin smooth, soft, 

 and flexible, and relax their pores so, that whatever gross particles may fly of 

 from their blood, whose constitution is now perhaps worse by the alteration of 

 diet, and the hardships they undergo at taming, may not stick to the skin, 

 but be freely evaporated. And I am credibly informed by such as have lived 

 long in the Indies, that they take as much care to keep the skins of the 

 elephants smooth and clear, as we do with our fine horses. So that it is 

 probable these scabs are a disease, and not natural to the animal. 



As to the cutis. Dr. Moulins observes, that its inner surface abounds with 

 a great many glands; when cut through, at least as far as the roots of the 

 hair went, it was like the horny or callous part of brawn, and its outer surface 

 abounded with a great many papillae. I can determine nothing about the 

 thickness of the skin, while recent ; but as it is dry, by an incision made on 

 one of the hips, it appears to be less than -» inch, and of substance not unlike 

 English bend, or sole-leather. I had no opportunity to observe, whether there 

 were any cutaneous vessels, but doubt not but there have been of them, and 

 that in abundance; l.from the numerous glands dispersed all over its inner 

 surface, which must have had blood-vessels inserted in them; and, 2. from the 

 abundance of ramifications dispersed in the cuticula, proportionable to which, 

 it is probable, they were also in the cutis. 



As to the fat, whether by reason of the extraordinary leanness of this sub- 

 ject, or if it be ordinary for elephants to be endued but with little of it, I 

 know not, but I could not have believed so little fat to have been in any animal 

 as was here ; for beside that there was neither a membrana adiposa, nor con- 

 spicuous omentum, there was not one grain of fat, either among the interstices 

 of the muscles surrounding the kidneys, nor round the anus and vagina, where 



