TRAUMATISMS BROUGHT ABOUT BY ANIMAL AGENCIES 153 



The Suidae, or pigs, are commonly met with in tropical jungles, 

 and are of importance because of the way in which they eat the 

 remains of persons who have been lost in the jungle. All the soft 

 parts are completely destroyed, while the bones are broken, 

 so that it is impossible to say whether the unfortunate people 

 died or were killed, whether they met with an accident or simply 

 lost their way, whether the pigs ate them while dying or only 

 after death. 



Severe lacerated wounds can be inflicted by the tusks of an 

 enraged boar. 



Proboseidse. — The elephants — E. afvicanus and E. indicus — usually kill 

 their victim by stamping upon him until the soft parts are terribly crushed, 

 lacerated, and bruised, while bones are broken. They also seize people by 

 means of their trunks and dash them against surrounding objects or the 

 ground. 



Traumatism caused by the Larger Reptilia. — The crocodiles, 

 gavials, and alligators are a constant source of danger in the tropics, 

 especially to natives, while bathing in rivers. The namics ' croco- 

 dile ' and ' alligator ' are often used as though they were synonyms, 

 but this is by no means so. Some twelve species of crocodile are 

 well known. They possess a most formidable array of teeth, 



18 



expressed, as a rule, by the formula of which the third and ninth 



in the upper jaw are longer than the others, and are respectively 

 lodged between the second and third and the eighth and ninth teeth 

 in the lower jaw, in which the first, fourth, and eleventh teeth are 

 the strongest. The muzzle of the crocodile is longer than that of 

 the alligator. The muzzle of the alligator is relatively short and 

 broad. 



The muzzle of the gavial is very long. The two species of im- 

 portance are Gavialis schlegeli of Java and Borneo and G. gangeticus 



28 2Q 



of the Ganges. The latter has a dental formula 2^ "26 



The following list, modified from Ditmar, gives the names and 

 habitats of these formidable reptiles : — 



A. Snout extremely long and slender — 



Gavialis gangeticus, India; Tomistoma schlegeli, Borneo 

 and Sumatra. 



B. Snout very sharp, slender, and triangular — 



Crocodilus cataphractus. West Africa; C. johnstoni, Aus- 

 tralia; C. intermedius, Orinoco. 



C. Snout moderately sharp and triangular — 



Crocodilus americanus, Mexico, Central and South America ; 

 C. siamensis, Siam and Java; C. niloticus, Africa; 

 C. porosus, India and Malaysia. 



D. Snout oval, bluntly triangular — - 



Crocodilus rohustus, Madagascar; C. thomhifer, Cuba; 

 C. morelatti, Guatemala and Honduras. 



