OF LIVING ELEPHANTS, 18S 



raraen, p, is above the posterior base of the arch; the glenoid cavity 

 is below, transverse, convex from before backwards, curved into a 

 concave arch in its transverse dimension : it is found to correspond 

 nearly with the middle of the height of the head. The mastoid pro- 

 cess, q, is almost none, placed at the back part of the head, at the 

 height of the auditory foramen, and the occipital condyle, but nearer 

 the condyle. A rounded vault, r, separates the alveoli of the tusks 

 from those of the molar teeth. The rest of the palate is considerably 

 long, and narrow : the basilar region ascends. Such is the general 

 description of the head of the elephant. 



With respect to the sutures, there is first, n o, that which descends 

 from the nares to the incisive edge, and which separates the intermax- 

 illary bones from one another. These bones ascend on each side of 

 the nose as far as the side of the root of the nasal bone, and have them- 

 selves, on the outside, the descending portion of the frontal bones, 

 ■which bound the orbit before, i s. The maxillary bone is raised to a 

 point, so as also to touch a little this portion of the frontal bone {be- 

 tween s and b). The suture b c, which separates the intermaxillary 

 from the maxillary bone, descends obliquely along the external side of 

 the alveolus, then turns its posterior edge, and ascends into the sub- 

 stance of the edges of the foramen incisivum; so that this foramen be- 

 longs to the two bones, and there is seen only the maxillary bone on 

 the posterior surface of the alveolus of the tusk, and in all the vault 

 which separates this alveolus from the molar teeth. However, the tusk 

 itself is entirely in the intermaxillary bone. The foramen incisivum, 

 of considerable breadth inferiorly and posteriorly, contracts into a long 

 canal, which ascends, between the intermaxillary and the maxillary 

 bones, to the floor of the nares. The lacrymal bone, t, is small, long, 

 and narrow, directed horizontally between the frontal and maxillary 

 bone to the internal edge of the orbit, and touches neither the inter- 

 maxillary, nor the os malpe ; there is no lacrymal foramen. The sub- 

 orbital foramen is of considerable breadth, and forms a very short 

 canal in the anterior base of the arch. The os malse, v, commences 

 only towards the external edge of the orbit ; it is then united by a 

 long, nearly horizontal, suture, under the zygomatic process of the 

 temporal bone, /, going as far backward as it, so as to reach nearly 

 under the ear. The frontal bones are raised a little; so that they 

 fprp a transverse, narrow band, in the form of the arc of a circle, 

 s, i, IV, i, s, fig. 1 , descending from the two sides of the nose as far as 

 the lacrymal bones, which are themselves lower than the nares. The 

 suture, s s', which separates in the orbit the frontal from the lacrymal 

 and maxillary bones, is almost horizontal. It then remounts in the 

 temple (at x), to separate them from the temporal, and returning 

 transversely under the parietal bone A (see x'), it thus gives them on 

 the side of the head a mnch broader portion than they had anteriorly. 

 The temporal bone, y q I, la raised very high, and forms almost the en- 

 tire lateral portion of the occipital ridge ; it takes up on each side 

 about one- sixth of the lateral portion of the head. 



The superior occipital bone advances above the ridge, so that it ap- 

 pears at the anterior surface of the skull (at z, fig. 1 ) ; to it belongs 



