188 ( \ssi:i,I/S POPULAR NATURAL HISTORY. 



is -li,.rt and tliiek, in order that it may bo better able to cnduvc the strain occasioned by tlie weight at (he 

 1-N.tremitv. Tliis -,h..rtiiess of the neck in so huge an animal forbids the possibility of the mouth being 

 brought to the ground to feed, or of its even being applied, with anything like ease or address, to 

 leaves or boughs of an elevation level with itself. But independent of the shortness of the neck, and 

 its consequent want of flexibility, the projecting tusks also offer an impediment to the free use of the 

 uiouth, as seen in herbivorous mammalia. 



To make amends for all this, or, in other words, to keep up that harmony of parts, dependent on 

 each other, which we see in all organic living bodies, the elephant is endowed with an additional 

 instrument, compensating for every deficiency. This is the trunk, which has in all ages commanded 

 the notice and admiration of the intelligent, and invited the scrutiny of the lovers of nature ; it is, 

 indeed, a marvellous structure, admirably calculated to set forth the wisdom of the Divine artificer. 



The trunk consists of a bundle of muscular fibres, inclosing two canals ; these muscles have 

 different directions, some being disposed transversely, others longitudinally, and at different angles. 

 It is from their contraction and relaxation in different degrees, and under different modifications, that 

 the trunk is capable of shortening, or elongating, or twisting, or coiling up in any direction. Cuvier 

 reckons the number of distinct muscles in this organ, each having its own action, as not less than 

 40,000 ; hence that union of strength and pliability, of force and address, which this wonderful piece 

 of mechanism exhibits. 



This organ is armed at its extremity with a kind of muscular finger, antagonising against the 

 division or wall of partition, between the two canals, which runs down its whole length. This finger 

 is so delicate, sensitive, and pliable, that, opposed by a sort of thumb, it can take hold of any object, 

 and even pick up a small coin or a pin from the floor. But, besides this, it endows the animal to 

 some extent with a sense of touch a faculty which, possessed by man in the highest degree, greatly 

 contributes to his information, and gives to the elephant, also, an elevated position among animals. 



One of the most philosophical poets of ancient Rome calls the elephant " anguimanus," or " snake- 

 hand," and Cicero speaks of its proboscis as " the elephant's hand." Even the Kaffir has been known, 

 in the vast forests of Africa, on slaying one of these animals, to amputate the trunk, and bury it with 

 a feeling of awe, exclaiming, " The elephant is a great lord, and the trunk is his hand." 



The strength and minute touch of the proboscis are equally available in the collection of his daily 

 supplies. If he meet with long herbage, he twists his trunk spirally round the roots and crops them 

 off. The bundle which he gathers is thus held between what may be called the finger and thumb of 

 the trunk, and is then conveyed to his mouth. If the objects he is collecting are too small to repay 

 him for this trouble, he holds them one by one behind his thumb till he has gathered enough for a 

 K/ad. And when the object which he wants is difficult to reach, or .requires force for its removal, ho 

 completely curls his trunk, and, elevating himself on his hinder legs, pulls it down. 



The canals of the trunk, by the action of the numerous vessels surrounding them, constitute two 

 self-acting sucking-pumps, by means of which the elephant drinks. "When young, he takes the mother's 

 milk in the ordinary way ; but in drinking he dips the end of this double tube into the water, fills it 

 with the fluid, then turns it round into the mouth, to be there emptied, or turns the contents in the 

 form of a shower-bath over the body, as well to cool it as to drive away the flies. 



The only teeth which the elephant possesses, with the exception of the ivory tusks, are the 

 grinders. In their general structure, they closely resemble those of the rodents, being composed ot 

 osseous layers, disposed vertically, enveloped in enamel, and consolidated together by a substance 

 termed cortical. Wearing down, as they do perpetually, from their grinding upon one another in 

 reducing the food to pulp, there is an obvious necessity for their renovation. In the rodents, the 

 teeth, as they wear down, are perpetually growing ; and so energetic is this law, that if a tooth be lost 

 by accident, its opposite fellow, having no counterbalancing detrition, grows to an enormous six.e, so as 

 often to prove an impediment in mastication. In the elephant, the teeth are lost and renewed in 

 regular succession ; but the new tooth does not succeed by pushing out the old one from beneath, 

 Which is the usual mode, but by rising behind it, and pushing it forwards in proportion as it wears 

 away, till at last it is expelled altogether. Hence, as Cuvier observes, there is at first only one 

 grinder -,t eae], side, above and below, and presently two ; the loss, however, of the first reduces the 

 niiinl.er again to one, but presently another makes its appearance to expel its predecessor. The 



