102 
MAMMALIA. 
[Chap. EI. 
appears to have been embodied in bis lost work on India. 
But although Aristotle generally receives the credit of 
having exposed and demolished the fallacy of Ctesias, it 
will be seen by a reference to his treatise On the Pro- 
gressive Motions of Animals, that in reality he ap- 
proached the question with some hesitation, and has not 
only left it doubtful in one passage whether the ele- 
phant has joints in his knee, although he demonstrates 
that it has joints in the shoulders 1 ; but in another 
he distinctly affirms that on account of his weight the 
elephant cannot bend his forelegs together, but only one 
at a time, and reclines to sleep on that particular side. 2 
. So great was the authority of Aristotle, that ^Elian, 
who wrote two centuries later and borrowed many of his 
statements from the works of his predecessor, perpetuates 
this error ; and, after describing the exploits of the 
trained elephants exhibited at Eome, adds the expres- 
sion of his surprise, that an animal without joints 
(avapOpov) should yet be able to dance. 3 The fiction 
was too agreeable to be readily abandoned by the poets 
i "When an animal moves pro- Be Ingressu Anim., ch. ix. Taylor's 
gressively an hypothennse is pro- Transl. 
duced, which is equal in power to 2 Aristotle, Be Animal., lib. ii. 
the magnitude that is quiescent, ch. i. It is curious that Taylor, in 
and to that which is intermediate, his translation of this passage, was 
But since the members are equal, so strongly imbued with the "grey- 
it is necessary that the member headed errour," that in order to 
which is quiescent should be in- elucidate the somewhat obscure 
fleeted either in the knee or in the meaning of Aristotle, he has actually 
incurvation, if the animal that interpolated the text with the ex- 
walks is without knees. It is pos- ploded fallacy of Ctesias, and after 
sible, however, for the leg to be the word reclining to sleep, has in- 
moved, when not inflected, in the serted the words "leaning against 
same manner as infants creejD; and some wall or tree," which are not to 
there is an ancient report of this be found in the original, 
kind about elephants, which is not 3 " Z$av 8e avapQpov owiivai ml 
true, for such animals as these, pvOfiov ko.1 /x4\ovs, ko,\ (pvXdrreiv 
are moved in consequence of an in- (pvo-ews Sapa ravra a/xa ku\ 
flection taking place either in their Idiorris scad' enaa-Tov £icjr\r]Krucli." — 
shoulders or hips." — Aristotle, 2Ellvn, Be Nat. Anim,, lib. ii.cap. xi. 
