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which water taken into the trunk ia prevented from flowing into 

 the true nostrils. Besides numerous vessels and nerves the 

 bulk of the organ contains much voluntary muscle — which has 

 been divided into a superficial set of musclGS, which have fibres 

 move or less longitudinal in direction, and a deep set, the fibres of 

 which radiate from the canals towards the surface. The super- 

 ficial muscles are four in number being a Levator, Depressor, 

 and two Laterals. The Levator only is continued into the finger- 

 like process of the free end of the trunk : as a rule the Trunk 

 tapers from its large end above, where it emerges from the tissues 

 of the face, downwards towards its free extremity whore ifc 

 expands into a sort of double trumpet shaped opening surmounted 

 by a small extremely flexible finger-like process. This extremity 

 is larger and more square in the male than the female, its openings 

 are ovoid, and there is no notch below. The skin investing the 

 trunk is delicate, especially that on its posterior surface, which 

 presents transverse ridges giving it a permanent roughness. 

 In prehension the finger-like process may be approximated 

 to the posterior lip of the free end of the trunk, which 

 thus may be used as a hand — or the trunk may be twisted 

 round a large object such as a branch or a bunch of gi-ass. 

 Tennent mentions a case in which the forcible use of the trunk 

 sufficed to break off a tusk of another elephant, and certainly 

 the enormous amount of muscle in this peculiar organ gives it 

 very great power and pliability. Cases are mentioned in which 

 the trunk has been used otherwise as an offensive organ, either in 

 striking or in wielding a stick or stones. But in warfare this 

 part of the body is rather an impediment to the elephant than 

 otherwise, for it is extremely vulnerable, and instinct teaches the 

 animal to keep it as much as possible out of harm's way. The 

 elephant when attacked by a tiger elevates the trunk to the 

 utmost ; a determined dog has been known to put an elephant to 

 ignominious rout by a grip on the trunk j in days of old when 

 horsemen charged elephants they were instructed to endeavour 

 to injure the trunk ; and when an elephant was burnt to death 

 in Dublin the trunk was found " thrust near 2 feet into a very 

 hard ground." In treatment of Wounds of the Trunk the prin- 

 ciples of conservative surgery must be strictly adhered to, no part 

 which can possibly be saved being removed, for after an animal 



