THE ANATOMY OF THE INDIAN ELEPHANT. 51 



inferior palatine veins, lies at the back of the mouth, below the 

 soft palate. 



The entrance to the pharynx is bounded above by the antero- 

 inferior edge of the velum palati (where its descending and 

 horizontal portions meet) ; in front and below by the sharp, back- 

 ward directed edge of the dorsum of the tongue ; and laterally 

 by the mucous membrane of the pharynx, with which are con- 

 nected a number of scattered muscular fibres, and the yellow 

 elastic pharyngeal wall. There is no palato-glossus. The passage 

 is very narrow, and cannot in our young example be distended 

 to admit a cylinder of 2 inches diameter. 



The velum palati descends from the soft palate, but its chief 

 extension, as in many other large quadrupeds, is horizontally 

 backward. The free posterior edge passes so far back as slightly 

 to overlap the epiglottis. On each side it is continued into a 

 thin elastic fold, which is obliquely attached to the pharyngeal 

 wall, sloping backwards. In the natural position of the parts, 

 the posterior edge of the velum encloses an oval space, the longi- 

 tudinal diameter being an inch and a half, the transverse some- 

 what less. Through this aperture the arytsenoid cartilages project. 

 The lower ends of the lateral bands of the velum are approxi- 

 mated, but they do not meet; and Dr Watson, therefore, in 

 speaking of the " central " aperture of the soft palate, is to be 

 understood as meaning " in the middle line." The position of 

 the aperture is anatomically the same as in the human subject 

 or as in the majority of mammalia, and altogether below the 

 velum. There is no uvula, but we find a small vertical muscle 

 in the middle line, passing from the soft palate, to be inserted 

 into the back of the upper portion of the velum. This may 

 represent an azygos uvulce; its length does not exceed 2 

 inches. 



The muscular layer of the velum palati forms part of the 

 palato-pharyngens. Its anterior fibres, arising from the palate, 

 pass backwards and a little downwards, to be inserted into the 

 inner surface of the elastic wall of the pharynx, near the free tip 

 of the thyro-hyal. The posterior fibres gradually take a more 

 and more transverse direction, and form the thin muscular sheet 

 which lies in the horizontal valve of the velum. The lateral 

 bands of attachment contain muscular bundles from the same 



