Chap. III.] THE ELEPHANT. 
123 
stomach were observed at an early period, and even their 
configuration described, the function of the abnormal 
portion remained undetermined, and has been only re- 
cently conjectured. An elephant which belonged to 
Louis XIV. died at Versailles in 1681 at the age of 
seventeen, and an account of its dissection was published 
in the Memoires pour servir a UHistoire Naturelle, 
under the authority of the Academy of Sciences, in 
which the unusual appendages of the stomach are pointed 
out with sufficient particularity, but no suggestion is 
made as to their probable uses." 1 
attaching to the elephant in all 
ages, yet has its hody been hitherto 
very little subjected to anatomical 
inquiries;" and he laments that the 
rapid decomposition of the carcase, 
and other causes, had interposed 
obstacles to the scrutiny of the sub- 
ject he was so fortunate as to find 
access to. 
In 1723 Dr. "Wm. Stuckley pub- 
lished Some Anatomical Observa- 
tions made upon the Dissection of an 
Elephant; but each of the above 
essays is necessarily unsatisfactory, 
and little has since, been done to 
supply their defects. One of the 
latest and most valuable contribu- 
tions to the subjects, is a paper read 
before the Royal Irish Academy, on 
the 18th of Feb., 1847, by Profes- 
sor Harrison, who had the oppor- 
tunity of dissecting an Indian 
elephant which died of- acute fever; 
but the examination, so far as he has 
made it public, extends only to the 
cranium, the brain, and the probos- 
cis, the larynx, trachea, and ceso- 
phagus. An essential service would 
be rendered to science if some 
sportsman in Ceylon, or some of the 
officers connected with the elephant 
establishment there, would take the 
trouble to forward the carcase of a 
young one to England in a state fit 
for dissection. 
Postscriptum. — I am happy to 
say that a young elephant, carefully 
preserved in spirits, has recently been 
obtained in Ceylon, and forwarded to 
Prof. Owen, of the British Museum, 
by the joint exertions of M. Diard 
and Major Skinner. An oppor- 
tunity has thus been afforded from 
which science will reap advantage, 
of devoting a patient attention to 
the internal structure of this in- 
teresting animal. 
1 The passage as quoted by Buf- 
fon from the Memoires is as follows : 
— "L'estomac avoit peu de dia- 
metre ; il en avoit moins que le 
colon, car son diametre n' etoit que 
de quatorze pouces dans la partie la 
plus large ; il avoit trois pieds et 
demi de longueur : l'orifice superi- 
eur etoit a-peu-pres aussi eloigne 
du pylore que du fond du grand 
cul-de-sac qui se terminoit en une 
pointe composee de tuniques beau- 
coup plus epaissesque celles du reste 
de l'estomac; il y avoit au fond du 
grand cul-de-sac plusieurs feuillets 
epais d'une ligne, larges d'un pouce 
et demi, et disposes irregulierement; 
le reste de parois interieures etoit 
perce de plusieurs petits trous et 
