OF LIVING ELEPHANTS. 193 



other animals, and which does not consequently indicate, beyond dis- 

 pute, the species to which it belongs. 



Let us further add that, by a remarkable singularity, several of the 

 bones of the elephant resemble those of man much more than they do 

 the corresponding bones of any other great quadruped, and especially 

 than those of the great quadrupeds of our country, oxen and horses. 

 Such are the atlas, all the vertebrae of the neck, the bodies of the ver- 

 tebrae of the back; the scapula and pelvis, by reason of the width; 

 the femur in respect of its length and the simplicity of its form ; the 

 astragalus, the os calcis, the bones of the metacarpus and metatarsus. 

 We should then be the less surprised that professed anatomists, who 

 had not seen the skeleton of the elephant, should sometimes have 

 taken fossil bones of this genus for human bones, and consequently 

 for giants' bones. 



10. — Principal Dimensions. 



To conclude this description, and that it may serve as a basis for 

 the comparisons of the fossil bones, with which we shall have frequent 

 occasion to entertain our readers, we deem it right to give here the 

 table of the principal dimensions of the bones of a skeleton of an adult 

 female elephant, of the Indian species, of the Komarea or squat 

 variety, 8 feet 6 inches or 2,76 (m^tr.) high at the withers, 



Length of the bead from the edge of the occipital foramen to 



the edges of the incisive bones 0,883 



Vertical height of the head 1 ,070 



Distance between the occiput and the end of the bones of the 



nose 0,580 



Distance between the nasal fissure and the edge of the incisive 



bones 0,5<52 



Length of the interval when deprived of teeth . . 0,316 



lower jaw 0,681 



Height of its condyle 0,550 



coronoid process 0,376 



Breadth of its ascending- ramus 0,280 



Depth of the posterior palatine fissure 0,083 



Height of the occiput, reckoning from the lower edge of the 



occipital foramen 0,345 



Its width 0,712 



Separation of the two zygomatic arches 0,71 



Length of the cervical part of the spine 0,400 



of its dorsal part 1 ,354 



lumbar part 0,200 



— — - sacral part 0,250 



coccygean part* 1,500 



Breadth of the atlas of one transverse process to the other . . . 0,345 



Height of the spinous process of the 3rd and 4th dorsal vertebrae 0,356 



Height of the spinous process of the 1 1th and 12th 0,280 



Length of the scapula 0,720 



* These parts were measured on a skeleton, ■where the intervertebral cartilages were 

 not supplied. 



