2r 



At first sight it will seen that these statistics tend to -disprove 

 some of the stateineuts in the text. After careful examination, 

 and making allowauce for inaccuracies and inexactitude, I con- 

 clude that the reverse is the case. One thing is certainl/ made 

 very clear by them, that very many Government elephants are 

 lost by disease annually and that this involves a heavy drain on 

 the public purse. 



Elephant Poisoninq 

 la sometimes carried out rather extensively by natives wliose 

 crops have been destroyed by invasion of herds. A writer in 

 the Asiatic Besearches, Vol. XV., p. 183, describes how in some 

 parts of Bengal (especially near the wilds of Ramgur) the natives 

 poison elephants by mixing a preparation of the poisonona 

 Nepaul root called Dalcra in balls of grain and other materials of 

 which the animal is fond. In Cuttack, above fifty years ago, 

 mineral poison was laid for them in the same way and the car- 

 cases of eighty were found which had been killed by it. 



Mbecoeial poisoning. — Thp formation of tumours over the 

 body, progi'essivc ana3mia, and even disorders of the feet have 

 been attributed to the empirical use of the compounds of mercury 

 in too large quantities. There can bo little doubt that nature 

 lias provided the elephant with a discriminating instinct by 

 means of which he is able to avoid ingestion of substances of 

 poisonous properties among the numerous and various plants, 

 offered him as food. To the disappointment of the traveller, 

 elephants enlarged among apparently beautiful pasture grass wUl 

 often reject it in favour of less plentiful and much less inviting 

 food. A good mahout in preparing the fodder will reject those 

 substances, which, as experience has shown him, are usually left 

 uneaten by his elephant. 



CHAPTER III : ON THE CIRCULATORY SYSTEM, 

 The most remarkable facts about the Blood Circulatory Appara. 

 tus of the Elephant from an anatomical point of view are :— 

 The Heart has two points, its sides being separate towards the 

 apex, this organ very seldom has fat in its grooves, and the 

 blood pours into it from the front of the body by two largo 

 vessels instead of a single anterior vena cava. The veins form 

 in the temporal region, about the front of the chest, and in other 

 parts large networks (especially predominant about the bends of 

 joints) and in these the flow of blood is doubtless much retarded 

 while the animal is in a state of repose, and from them it is 

 driven more rapidly when the animal is moving. This anato- 

 mical fact is associated with the small development of the 



