414 THE PLACENTA AND GENERATIVE 



facts I had for predicting the birth of the young elephant. Naturally, the 

 question was at once asked, What is the period of gestation ■? Here again I was 

 comparatively in the dark. In the Thesaurus of Seba, published in 1734,* there 

 is figured the foetus, of an elephant without any of. the membranes, said to have 

 been taken out of its mother at about the middle of the period of gestation. 

 Zimmerman also gives a figure of a foetus.f In the description of this foetus only 

 vague allusions are made to the length of gestation. As is well known, among 

 the ancients, Pliny thought the period in the elephant was six months, Strabo 

 about eighteen ; according to Aristotle, however, nearly two years. What I had 

 learned from travellers in the East, and from the case referred to by Prof. Owen, the 

 time being in that instance 593 days, together with the fact of Aristotle^ giving 

 nearly two years, led me to indicate that about the 1st of March, 1880, would be 

 the time at which the birth of the elephant might be looked for. The young ele- 

 phant was born on March 9, 1880, at 2.30 A.M., exactly twenty months and 

 twenty days after the last copulation, or twenty-one months and fifteen days reck- 

 oning from the first one, a longer period by thirty-seven or sixty-two days as com- 

 pared with the case referred to by Prof. Owen. The fixing of the period of ges- 

 tation 630 to 656 days in the elephant is another interesting illustration of modern 

 investigation confirming the statements made by that most profound thinker and 

 careful observer, Aristotle. 



The labor was a very short one, the mother standing- on all fours, with one 

 hind foot slightly raised. The head presented, as observed by Mr. Porter. The 

 umbilical cord broke, and was removed with the placenta and membranes shortly 

 afterward by Mr. Arstingstall. Immediately after birth the mother rolled the 

 young one in the straw. The young elephant, a female, stood 30 inches in height; 

 measured, from base of trunk to root of tail, 35 inches ; and weighed 213| pounds. 

 It was perfectly formed and well developed. It was noticed immediately that it 

 sucked with the mouth, and not with the trunk, as Buff'on reasoned it must do — 

 an error so often repeated in works on Natural History. The young elephant 

 spends most of its time sleeping, sucking, and walking about. The mother is 

 extremely watchful, and restrains, by means of its trunk, the young one from 

 getting out of its reach. When first consulted in reference to the supposed preg- 

 nancy, I impressed Mr, Arstingstall, who was then in charge, with the import- 

 ance, if an elephant were born, of preserving any membranes that might come 

 away during labor. I am indebted to his kindly interest, and to the liberality of 



* Fig. 111. f Besch. eines Ungebornen Elephanten, Erlangen, 17S3. 



X De Generat. Animalium. Liber quartus, cap. 8. 



