OEDEE OF PACHYDEEMATA. 113 



wliicli is remarkable for its enormous development of skull. Of all 

 the lower animals, the Asiatic Elephant is the one whose head has 

 the greatest vertical height in proportion to its horizontal length. 

 However, the enormous rising produced at the upper, temporal, 

 and posterior part of the skull, is not the result of great 

 development of the brain ; it arises simply from there being a 

 quantit}' of broad cells, hollowed out in the substance of the bone. 

 The volume of the brain is thus much inferior to that of the 

 skull. On the lateral and upper portion of this enormous head 

 are two immense thin ears, which extend upwards, backwards, 

 and downwards. These the animal moves and flaps about at 

 will ; they also serve as a fan against the heat. The eye is small, 

 for its globe is not a third of the size of the Bull's eye, in com- 

 parison to the magnitude of the two animals. The mouth is also 

 small, and almost entirely hidden behind the tusks and the base 

 of the trunk. This trunk, an organ peculiar to the Elephants, is 

 merely the nose prolonged in an immoderate length, in the shajje 

 of a tube, and terminating in the openings of the nostrils. This 

 prodigious nasal organ performs the duties of arm and hand.* The 

 Elephant's trunk is, at the same time, an organ of touch, of smell, 

 of prehension, and likewise a formidable weapon. In the ordinary 

 actions of life, it is an instrument that performs all the functions 

 of a hand. It seizes and picks up the smallest objects, as, for 

 instance, a piece of money or a straw ; it can uncork a bottle, or 

 fire off a pistol. In the natural state, the Elephant makes use of 

 it for conveying food to its mouth ; for lifting heavy weights, and 

 putting them on its back ; for drinking, by fiUing it with water, 

 and then letting the water pour down its throat. With this 

 instriuneHt it defends itself, and attacks others ; it seizes its 

 enemies, entwines them in its folds, squeezes them, crushes them, 

 and tosses them into the air, or hurls them to the ground, after- 

 wards to be trampled under its broad feet. 



The structure of this marvellous organ (the trunk) is very 

 remarkable. It is a conical tube, of an irregular form, very 

 elongated, truncated and fimnel-shaped at the end. The upper 

 side of this trunk is convex, and fluted along its breadth ; the 

 lower side is flat. It is provided with two longitudinal rows of 



* In the Hindustani language, the Elephant is Sdt'/ii, from !,dt, a hand, i.e., the 

 creature with a hand. — Ed. 



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