TUSKS OF ASIATIC ELEPHANTS. 



63 



Billiga-rungun hills in 1863 by Sir Victor Brooke and Colonel Douglas 

 Hamilton. An account from the pen of the former gentleman of their 

 adventures with this elephant appears in Chap. XVII. ; and the following 

 dimensions and weight of both tusks, from the same source, may be relied 

 upon : — 



Right Tusk. 



Total length, outside curve, .... 

 Length of part outside socket or nasal hones, outside curve, 

 Length of part inside socket, outside curve. 

 Greatest circumference, ..... 

 Weight, 



Left Tusk.* 



Total length, outside curve, 

 Outside socket, do., 

 Inside do. do., 



Greatest circumference, 



Weight, 



Tusks are firmly embedded in sockets or cylinders of bone which run up 

 to the forehead and end at a line drawn from eye to eye. Tusks, except 

 those of very aged elephants, are only solid for a portion of their length ; 

 the hollow is filled with a firm, bloody pulp. In young animals the tusks 

 are only solid for a portion of their length even outside the gum, and are 

 hollow throughout the embedded portion. With age the pulp cavity decreases 

 in depth, tiH, in very old animals, it becomes almost obliterated. In the 

 large tusk referred to above, the pulp hoUow extends from the base through 

 half the embedded portion (about 13 1 inches). In a pair of tusks belong- 

 ing to Colonel Douglas Hamilton it is 10^ inches in an embedded length of 

 25. As a rule, tusks show barely one half of their total length outside the 

 jaw of the living animal. The length within and without the nasal bones 

 is generally exact, but the lip or gum hides a few inches of the projecting 

 Jialf. As the sockets or nasal bones of a large elephant are from 1 foot 6 

 inches to 1 foot 9 inches in length, this admits of an elephant's having a 

 tusk 3 1 feet long, of which only 1 \ foot (the gum hides about 4 inches) is 



* Sir Victor Brooke says : " The diseased (left) tusk is a very remarkable example from a patho- 

 logical point of view. The pulp cavity is entirely obliterated, a mass of excessively dense nodular 

 dentine being formed in its place. As far as I can judge, the tusk has been broken off short after 

 attaining large dimensions, and in tlie rupture a deep longitudinal rent extended backwards into 

 the pulp cavity, giving rise to diseased condition of the pulp. The stench from the tusk when ex- 

 tracted was horrible." 



