PACHYDERMATA. UE 
the mammz, two in number, placed under the chest. The 
young suck with the mouth, and not with the trunk. - 
But one living genus of the Proboscidiana is known, that of 
Everuas, Lin. 
Or the Elephant, which comprehends the largest of the terrestrial 
Mammalia. The astonishing nature of his trunk, an instrument 
at once agile and powerful, the organ of touch as well as of smell, 
forms a singular contrast with his clumsy aspect and heavy pro- 
portions; and as this is joined to a very imposing physiognomy, 
it has contributed to exaggerate the intelligence of these ani- 
mals. After studying them for a long time, we have not found it 
to surpass that of the Dog, or of several other carnivorous animals. 
Naturally of a mild disposition, Elephants live in herds, which are 
conducted by old males. Their food is strictly vegetable. 
Their distinctive character consists in the grinders, the bodies of 
which are composed of a certain number of vertical laminz, each 
one being formed of a bony substance, enveloped with enamel, and 
cemented together by a third substance, called cortical; in a word, 
similar to those we have already seen to exist in the Cabiais and. 
other Rodentia. ‘These grinders succeed each other, not vertically, 
or as our permanent teeth succeed the first ones, but from behind 
forwards, so that as fast as one tooth becomes worn, it is pushed 
forward by that which comes after it; hence it happens that the 
Elephant has sometimes one, sometimes two grinders on each side, 
or four or eight in all, according to circumstances. The first of 
these teeth are always composed of fewer laminz than those which 
replace them. It is asserted that certain Elephants thus shed their 
teeth eight times—their tusks, however, are changed but once. _ 
The Elephants of the present day, clothed with a rough skin nearly 
destitute of hair, are only found in the torrid zone of the eastern 
continent, where hitherto only two species have been ascertained. 
E. indicus, Cuv.; Buff. XI, i, and Supp. III, ix. (The Ele- 
phant of India.) An oblong head; the crown of the grinders pre- 
senting transverse undulating fillets, which are sections of the 
lamine which compose them worn by trituration. This spe- 
cies has rather smaller ears than the next one, and has four nails to 
the hind foot. It is found from the Indus to the Eastern ocean, 
and in the large islands in the south of India. They have been 
used from the earliest ages as beasts of draught and burden, 
but it has hitherto been found impossible to make them propa- 
gate in a domestic state, although the assertion respecting 
their modesty and repugnance to copulate before witnesses is 
