96 THE RHINOCEROS. 



teeth in the anterior part of the month, which h 

 covered by the lips. But, befide the four cut- 

 ting teeth, in the four corners of the mouth, there 

 arc twenty-four grinders, fix on each fide of the 

 two jaws. He holds his ears always erect : In 

 figure they refemble thofe of the hog ; but they 

 are proportionally fmaller. The ears are the 

 only parts of the body on which there are hairs, 

 or rather briMles. The extremity of the tail* 

 like that of the elephant, is garnimed with a bufh 

 of large, folid, hard briftles. 



Dr Parfons, a celebrated phyfician in London^ 

 to whom the republic of letters is much indebt- 

 ed for many valuable difcoveiies in natural hi- 

 Itory, and to whom I owe the highefl acknow- 

 ledgments for the marks of efteem and of friend- 

 fhip with which he has been pleafed to honour 

 me, publifhed, in the year 1743, a niftory of the 

 rhinoceros, from which i (hall the more willing- 

 ly make extracts, becaufe every composition of 

 that gentleman merits the attention and confi- 

 dence of the public. 



Though the rhinoceros was frequently exhi- 

 bited in the Roman fpectacles, from the days of 

 Pompey to thofe of Heliogabalus ; though he 

 has often been tranfported into Europe in more 

 modern times ; and though Bontius, Chardin, 

 and Kolben have drawn figures of him both in 

 India and Africa ; yet fo ill was he reprefented 

 and defcribed, that he was very imperfectly 

 known till the errors and caprices of thofe who 



had 



