930 The Mammary Gland of the Elephant, (November, 
say ; but the possibility of such a condition having existed can 
no more be denied than it can be proved, and we have good rea i 
sons in believing such to have been the case. We know the 
rodents to be a very ancient group, and if the ancestor of the 
Proboscidian was allied to them in any way it, in all probability, 
presented many points of affinity in structure and habits. 
aie If we take the foregoing in a hypothetical sense, supposing the 
ancestral form to have given birth to a number of young at one 
time, and to have possessed a corresponding number of glands, 
we have yet to answer the question: Why should the elephant, 
‘after specialization and reduction, present pectoral instead of in- 
guinal glands ? 
z The hog family, Suidæ, while not a primitive form of ungulate, 
still retain many ancestral characters, among them plurality of , 
young and gland structure, and we have every reason to believe 
. thatthe entire order sprang from a similarly low form; yet they 
all, after specialization and reduction, present inguinal glands. : 
_ There may have been many causes which will never occur w 4 
us why the young Proboscidian should use the anterior pair of ar 
glands ; but two of them have occurred to me as a feasible, if not. 
- 
il EEA A ER VAENE = i eo al 
in our present state of knowledge, a satisfactory explanation. 
_ Any one whose eye is accustomed to take in the animal form 
: will have noticed that in the majority of hoofed animals the belly 
line slopes upward and backward; take the horse, deer, 0% 
camel, or any of the large herbivores for example. Aow 
-~ reverse is true of the elephant, the belly line sloping downward 
and backward, this being in part due to the large pendulous gene 
__ tals in the female, and in part to the tremendous abdominal viscera vi 
bagging down and occupying a rather short space lengthwise ™ i 
I yp. rtion to the animal’s general build. The young elephant, bs 
sucking as it does with its mouth, and possessing @ short e 
comparatively immobile neck, would find it very inconvenient A 
the glands were situated in the inguinal region with the massi a : 
ses of the mother in the way; and this difficulty would ber 
7 re increas eased as the young animal grew. As it is, the mie 
=a kom the pectoral region’ thie mo SOc’ 
re 
nient point, with nothing to interfere; and a pipe 
ecame more and more specialized, the fewer, and finally the pi : 
Spring resulting used this most convenient gland g d 
of the others, which have disappeared from yE 
ae i 
