102 MAMMALIA. (Caar. II. 
appears to have been embodied in his lost work on India. 
But although ArisToTie generally receives the credit of 
having exposed and demolished the fallacy of Crustas, it 
will be seen by a reference to his treatise On the Pro- 
gressive Motions of Animals, that in reality he ap- 
proached the question with some hesitation, and has not 
only left it doubtful in one passage whether the ele- 
phant has joints in his knee, although he demonstrates 
that it has joints in the shoulders!; but in another 
he distinctly affirms that on account of his weight the 
elephant cannot bend his forelegs together, but only one 
at a time, and reclines to sleep on that particular side. ? 
So great was the authority of Aristorez, that ACLIAN, 
who wrote two centuries later and borrowed many of his 
statements from the works of his predecessor, perpetuates 
this error; and, after describing the exploits of the 
trained elephants exhibited at Rome, adds the expres- 
sion of his surprise, that an animal without joints 
(dvapOpov) should yet be able to dance. The fiction 
was too agreeable to be readily abandoned by the poets 
1 «When an animal moves pro- 
gressively an hypothenuse is pro- 
duced, which is equal in power to 
the magnitude that is quiescent, 
and to that which is intermediate. 
But since the members are equal, 
it is necessary that the member 
which is quiescent should be in- 
flected either in the knee or in the 
ineurvation, if the animal that 
walks is without knees. It is pos- 
sible, however, for the leg to be 
moved, when not inflected, in the 
same manner as infants creep; and 
there is an ancient report of this 
kind about elephants, which is not 
true, for such animals as these, 
are moved in consequence of an in- 
fiction taking place either in their 
shoulders or hips,” — ARISTOTLE, 
De Ingressu Anim., ch. ix. Taylor's 
Transl. 
2 AnisrotiE, De Animal., lib. ii. 
ch. i. It is curious that Taylor, in 
his translation of this passage, was 
so strongly imbued with the “‘grey- 
headed errour,” that in order to 
elucidate the somewhat obscure 
meaning of Aristotle, he hasactually 
interpolated the text with the ex- 
ploded fallacy of Ctesias, and after 
the word reclining to sleep, hag in- 
serted the words “leaning against 
some wall or tree,” which are not to 
be found in the original. 
8 “Zeov 5é avapPpovy cuvidvat nad 
puduod Kal pédrous, kal guddrrew 
oxijua picews Sapa ta’ra Gua Kab 
iidrns Ka Exaoroy ecmAnKtiKh.’— 
Ait, De Nat, Anim., lib. ii.cap. xi. 
