224 MAMMALIA. [Cuar. VII. 
Nothing can more strongly exhibit the impulse to 
obedience in the elephant, than the patience with which, 
at the order of his keeper, he swallows the nauseous 
medicines of the native elephant-doctors ; and it is im- 
possible to witness the fortitude with which (without 
shrinking’) he submits to excruciating surgical operations 
for the removal of tumours and ulcers to which he is sub- 
ject, without conceiving a vivid impression of his gentle- 
ness and intelligence. Dr. Davy when in Ceylon was 
consulted about an elephant in the government Stud, 
which was suffering from a deep, burrowing sore in the 
back, just over the back-bone, which had long resisted 
the treatment ordinarily employed. He recommended 
the use of the knife, that issue might be given to the 
accumulated matter, but no one of the attendants was 
competent to undertake the operation. “ Being assured,” 
he continues, “that the creature would behave well, I 
undertook it myself. The elephant was not bound, but 
was made to kneel down at his keeper’s command — and 
with an amputating knife, using all my force, I made 
the incision required through the tough integuments. 
The elephant did not flinch, but rather inclined towards 
me when using the knife ; and merely uttered a low, and 
as it were suppressed, groan. In short, he behaved as 
like a human being as possible, as if conscious (as I 
of their training appears to have 
been ascribed to the employment 
of music. 
Pune, in the account which he 
has given of the e.ephant’s fondness 
for music, would almost seem to 
have versified the prose narrative 
of Aixran, as he describes its excite- 
ment at the more animated por- 
tions, its step being regulated to the 
time and movements of the har- 
mony: the whole “suprising in a 
creature whose limbs are without 
Joints ! 
“ Kaivdy ti moidv e& dvdpOpwv dp- 
yevey,” 
Pures, Expos. de Heph ,1. 216. 
For an account of the training 
and performances of the elephants 
at Rome, as narrated by Aixian, 
see the appendix to this chapter. | 
