916 The Osteology of the Elephant. [No. 155. 



some years ago for my own guidance, and shortly afterwards com- 

 pared (in doing which I had the assistance of a sporting friend, no 

 other than our own Asmodeus) with the articulated specimen in the 

 Museum of the Asiatic Society. In the same apartment were skele- 

 tons of other mammalia — the Rhinoceros Indicus, Felis Tigris, Felis 

 Leopardus, Sus Scropha, &c, and while viewed in Juxta-position 

 with these, a casual observer might imagine the elephant deficient in 

 the number of bones usually forming the legs. Not so, the compara- 

 tive anatomist who detects the same plan regularly followed through- 

 out all the class, varied only by the elongation, or otherwise, and 

 arrangement of the carpal and metacarpal, tarsal and metatarsal 

 bones, as also of the digital phalanges. The posterior extremities of 

 our subject (due allowance being made for great difference in length 

 and size) seem to approach more nearly to the inferior ones of the 

 human skeleton than those of any other quadruped. The Vertical 

 position of the sacrum adds to this similitude, while the lateral power 

 bestowed by the articulation of the thigh and knee joints, is visible 

 externally — as a favorite position of the animal, while tethered and at 

 rest, is supporting the weight of his hinder quarters on one leg, while 

 the other is thrown in a stand at ease manner across it, one foot 

 resting carelessly upon the other. 



Plate 1. The head, excepting the lower jaw, is drawn in section, 

 showing the situation of the brain and it's defences; also, the process 

 of dentition, in which one, the foremost, grinder is seen to be super- 

 annuated and gradually disappearing; the next, the centre one, in 

 present use, and the third decending to take the place of the last in 

 due course. This singular system of decay and reproduction is said 

 to occur eight times in the life of the individual.* 



* I have now before me the skull of an elephant which died here about a year 

 ago; — it presents the peculiarity of having no grinder on the right side of the lower 

 jaw ; whether this was a natural defect or the result of an accident is not known. If 

 the latter, it must have happened many years ago, as the alveolus is entirely ossified 

 over, a slight hollow alone appearing, while the corresponding grinder above, instead 

 of having the usual jaggy polished under-surface, showing the arrangement of enamel 

 and bony substance, is rounded and covered with the opaque cortical matter. Its 

 predecessor, which is much reduced, and was attached to the head by only a single 

 root, is also rounded below, but is slightly polished, with some of tho enamel ap- 

 pearing. 



