OF LIVING ELEPHANTS. 195 



have nearly exhausted the subjoct, each of them having discovered 

 something important. 



With respect to the manner in which the teeth in general grow, our 

 observations appear to us to confirm the theory of Hunter, rather than 

 that of any other writer, in what concerns the part of the tooth called 

 osseous. But this great anatomist does not seem to us equally happy 

 in regard to the enamel ; and he has entirely misunderstood the nature 

 of the third substance, peculiar to certain herbivorous animals. la 

 these two respects, M. Blake seems to us to have approached nearer 

 the truth ; whilst we do not think, with him, that there are vessels in. 

 the osseous substance. 



In fact, each molar tooth of the elephant, as ever}^ otb.er tooth what- 

 ever, is produced, and, as one may say, conceived in tlie interior of a 

 membranous sac, which we shall call, with several anatomists, its 

 capsule. 



This sac. seen externally, is in the elephant of a rhoinboidal form, 

 less high behind than before ; it is shut on every side, if we except the 

 small openings for the nerves and vessels. 



It is lodged in a bony cavity of the same form as itself, hollowed out 

 in the maxillary bone, and which is one day to form the alveolus of the 

 tooth. 



It is but the external plate of the capsule which has the simplicity 

 of form we have just now mentioned. Its internal lamina forms on 

 the contrary, as in herbivorous smvsxdX^ in general, several folds; but to 

 render them intelligible it is necessary to describe another part. 



I mean to speak of the pulpy kernel of the tooth. It has in every 

 animal a peculiar figure. To represent that of the elephant in particu- 

 lar, let us suppose, that from the bottom of the capsule, taken as a 

 base, there proceed species of walls or partitions, all parallel, all trans- 

 verse, and directed towards the part of the sac, ready to make its egress 

 from the alveolus. 



These little walls adhere pnly to the bottom of the capsule ; their 

 opposite extremity, or, if you wish, their summit, is free from all ad- 

 hesion. 



This free summit is much thinner than the base : one might call it 

 their edge; it is still more deeply cleft on its breadth, into several goints, 

 or dentuli, which are very acute. 



The substance of these little walls is soft, transparent, very vascular, 

 and seems to possess much of the nature of gelatine ; it becomes hard, 

 white, and opaque, in spirit of wine. 



We may now easily figure to ourselves the folds of the internal 

 membrane of the capsule ; let us figure to ourselves that it forms pro- 

 ductions which penetrate all the intervals of the small gelatinous walls, 

 which I am after describing. These productions adhere to the surface 

 of the capsule, which correspond to the mouth, and to the two lateral 

 surfaces, but they do not adhere to its fundus, from which arise the 

 small walls or gelatinous productions. Consequently we may, -without 

 difiiculty, conceive a vacuum continued, though infinitely folded on 

 itself, between all these gelatinous walls (descending for the upper 

 teeth, ascending for the lower) and these small membranous partitions 

 (ascending in the upper teeth, descending in those below). 



