340 ON THE 



which, while its extremity serves the prehensive 

 purposes of the human hand, and the tube 

 generally to raise or to strike bodies at the 

 pleasure of the animal ; is the instrument 

 through which respiration is performed, and 

 food and water conveyed into the mouth ; and 

 the channel of communication with the nasal 

 apparatus by which smelling is affected (a sense 

 in this animal of very peculiar acuteness and 

 discrimination) hut is not in itself the organ of 

 smell. 



This very extraordinary apparatus, which is 

 convex on its upper surface, and flat below, is 

 about three feet in length, when contracted, and 

 exceeds nine feet in its fullest extension 

 It is composed of a series of flfcxible,cartilaginous 

 rings to which are attached innumerable trans- 

 verse and longitudinal muscles most curiously 

 interlaced with each other, through whose agen- 

 cy at the will of the Animal, an almost endless 

 variety of actions can be produced ; the whole 

 forming as it were an irregular cone commencing 

 with a broad base and terminating in a tapering 

 extremity. 



It takes its rise from the nasal and upper 

 maxillary bones, and making a turn inward, it 

 descends into the palate, where it forms separate 

 orifices ; being the commencement of distinct 

 cavities, which are divided quite up to the extre- 

 mity, by a longitudinal partition ; thus forming 

 a completely double tube. 



