174 PROBOSCIDIA. 



surface ; 2 feet 8 inches on the lower : the circumference at the thickest 

 part was 15| inches. The skin is very thin and closely attached to the 

 muscles. The muscular fibres on the upper surface are regularly longi- 

 tudinal ; on the lower surface they diverge from a middle fine passing 

 forwards and outwards. Beneath these regular strata, the fibres are in 

 all directions, and so mixed, there is no tracing them. In every trans- 

 verse section these fibres have a whitish appearance near to the centre, 

 which is [due to] the muscular fibres near the tubes running through 

 a white substance : this white substance consists of glistening tendi- 

 nous fibres running in various directions. 



The Brain 1 . — The dura mater 2 is remarkably thick, partly owing to a 

 number of sinuses or veins in every part ; for the veins everywhere are 

 passing into it from the pia mater, and make a plexus. The course of 

 the principal vessels are in the usual place, to wit, on the convex edge 

 of the falciform and transverse processes. The arteries of the pia mater 

 and brain were very small in proportion: hardly so large as in the 

 human subject. The fifth pair of nerves 3 were apparently larger than 

 in other animals, and it was presumed that tbis might be for the sake 

 of the proboscis. The glandula pituitaria was oblong in the longitudinal 

 direction ; not transverse as in the human subject. It was very loosely 

 connected at its inferior surface, and upon its upper surface had a 

 middle cavity lodging a round body like a worm, which was buried in 

 it longitudinally (supposed to be the continuation of the infundibulum), 

 dividing for some depth into two lobes. The cerebellum is larger in 

 proportion to the cerebrum than in the human ; nearly as if the posterior 

 lobes of the cerebrum had been wanting ; and the cerebrum was much 

 flatter at its upper and posterior parts, where the fissure between the 

 two hemispheres, down to the corpus callosum, was not so deep as in 

 the human. The peduncles of the cerebellum and the posterior part 

 of the corpus annulare were large in the same proportion. The verte- 

 bral arteries are wide, to form the basilary artery upon the medulla 

 oblongata, immediately behind the corpora pyramidalia ; and the pos- 

 terior branch of each carotid runs backwards and then downwards to 

 join its fellow in the middle of the corpus annulare. 



In the beginning of the medulla spinalis near the centre there were 

 two columns of cineritious substance, one towards each side 4 . 



i [Hunt. Prep. No. 1331.] 2 [Id. No. 1346.] 



3 [See a figure of the commencement of the fifth pair of nerves in the elephant, 

 in A. K. Boerhaave's 'Hist. Anat. Infantis, cujus pars corporis inferior monstros a 

 erat,' Petersb. 1754.] 



4 [Hunt. Preps. Nos. 1366 — 1372. The cheek-gland of the elephant is shown in 

 No. 2103.] 



