27 



stout jaw muscles, and a very strong ligamentnm nnchsB, also a 

 great development of the facial sinuses to lessen the weight of tho 

 head by containing mucli rarifiod air, and shortness of the neck 

 at the unsupported extremity of which this huge and weighty 

 skull is placed. The elephant's skeleton, only, of all which I have 

 mounted was found to require a special prop for the skull I An 

 elephant in feeding makes use of the tusks and even the fore 

 limbs occasionally in the emergencies of wild life, but usually he 

 simply requires the trunk as an organ of prehension. With this 

 " lithe proboscis" he is enabled to grasp either large things 

 or small. The former he seizes by twisting the trunk more 

 or less round them, and the skin of the posterior surface of 

 the organ is ordinarily transversely corrugated to make the 

 grip firm, with smaller objects he simply closes the hand-like 

 extremity of tho organ, and, while seeking a fair trunk -full, he 

 will retain small particles in the end of the organ by slight 

 short sniffings. Thus by the judicious exercise of patience tho 

 trunk is able to collect suiScient material to make it worth 

 while for the huge jaws to come into motion, and the immense 

 millstone-like teeth to crush the materials placed between them by 

 the backward flexure of the proboscis. This careful collection of 

 the food by the trunk and its precise direction in suitable quanti- 

 ties into tho mouth render injuries to the mouth infrequent. How- 

 ever an Inflammation or the cheek has been discribed by Slym 

 as " in a more or less degree a common disorder," The animal is 

 off his feed, the cheek is swollen and painful, there is a little fever 

 present, the bowels being torpid. The treatment he recommends 

 is local abstraction of blood by means of leeches^free fomentations, 

 and a cathartic dose consisting of Cassia and Tamarind plnps, 

 2 ounces each, with common salt and gingili oil of each 8 ounces. 

 It is liable to interfere with the condition of the patient. 



The Tongue is small, and posteriorly, instead of anteiiorly, very 

 flexible and highly developed. The Salivari/ glands are small, 

 indeed a doubt exists in the minds of anatomists as to whether 

 there really are any but the small parotids. We, theoretically, 

 would hardly anticipate this anatomical state in a strict 

 vegetarian like the elephant ! 



The Pharynx exhibits several important peculiarities. It 13 so 

 arranged that the part commonly described as Isthmus faucium 



