STUDIES IN COMPARATIVE ANATOMY.— No. II. 



ANATOMY OF THE INDIAN ELEPHANT, 



Inteoduction. 



Whenever tlie comparative anatomy of mammalia shall be 

 exhaustively treated, the structure of the existing species of 

 elephants will claim a principal share of attention. They are so 

 distinctly separated from other quadrupeds that an order is 

 required for their sole reception. Yet, though isolated from all 

 other existing species, they bear marks of affinity with more than 

 one group, particularly with Ungulata, Sirenia, and Eodentia. 

 This fact of recent zoology suggests a view which the history of 

 extinct mammalia seems to justify, viz., that the elephants 

 constitute a comparatively primitive type, representing, though 

 perhaps not directly, a now extinct central group, from which the 

 orders above mentioned, and possibly some others, may have been 

 derived. The African and Indian elephants are further remark- 

 able as the largest land quadrupeds now living ; nor can the 

 palseontologist, reviewing the land quadrupeds of all past times, 

 so far as they are yet made known, find a trace of any larger 

 form which is not also an elephant. Hence arise some curious 

 physiological and mechanical questions to the student of elephant 

 anatomy. What are the special modifications implied by a 

 weight of perhaps three tons ? How nearly do the existing 

 species approach the limits of size fixed by mechanical laws and 

 by the physical properties of animal tissues ? 



It would be an interesting task to investigate such problems 

 as these, and to discuss the many points of anatomy, morphology, 

 physiology, and palseontology suggested by the examination of a 

 dead elephant. Our immediate purpose is less ambitious. 

 Leaving the greater enterprise to other times, and probably to 

 other hands, we here offer a condensed statement of facts re- 

 specting those parts of the structure of the elephant which are at 



