THE ELEPHANT. 51 



fluids by a ftrong faction, or to raife heavy bo- 

 dies by applying to them the edge of his trunk, 

 and making a vacuum within by a vigorous in- 

 fpiration. 



Hence delicacy of feeling, acutenefs of fmell- 

 ing, facility of movement, and the power of fuc- 

 tion, are united at the extremity of the elephant's 

 nofe. Of all the inftruments which Nature has fo 

 liberally bellowed on her mod favourite produc- 

 tions, the trunk of the elephant is perhaps the 

 mod complete and the mod admirable. It is not 

 only an organic inftrument, but a triple fenfe, 

 whofe united functions are at once the caufe, and 

 produce the effects of that fagacity and thofe re- 

 markable talents which diftinguifh the elephant, 

 and exalt him above all other quadrupeds. He 

 is not fo fubject, as other animals, to errors of 

 vifion ; becaufe he quickly rectifies them by the 

 fenfe of touching ; and, by ufing his trunk, as 

 a long arm, for the purpofe of touching remote 

 objects, he acquires, like man, clear ideas of 

 diftances. But the other animals, except the 

 monkeys and fome others who have a kind of 

 arms and hands, cannot acquire ideas of diftance 

 but by traverfing fpace with their bodies. Of 

 all the fenfes, that of touching has the greater!: 

 relation to intelligence. The delicacy of touch- 

 ing, the flexibility of the trunk, the power of 

 fuction, the fenfe of fmelling, and the length 

 of the arm, give the ideas of the fubftance of 

 bodies, of their external form, of their weight, 



£>2 Of 



