232 
MAMMALIA. 
[Chap. VII. 
to the stud of the Commissioner of Koads, and in 1844 
the female, whilst engaged in dragging a waggon, gave 
"birth to a still-born calf. Some years before, an ele- 
phant that had been captured by Mr. Cripps, dropped a 
female calf, which he succeeded in rearing. As usual, 
the little one became the pet of the keepers; but as it 
increased in growth, it exhibited the utmost violence 
when thwarted ; striking out with its hind-feet, throwing 
itself headlong on the ground, and pressing its trunk 
against any opposing object. 
The duration of life in the elephant has been from the 
remotest times a matter of uncertainty and speculation. 
Aristotle says it was reputed to live from two to three 
hundred years 1 , and modern zoologists have assigned to 
it an age very little less; Cuvier 2 allots two hundred 
and De Blainville one hundred and twenty. The only 
attempt which I know of to establish a period histori- 
cally or physiologically is that of Fleurens, who has 
advanced an ingenious theory on the subject in his 
treatise "De la Longevite Hwm.aine" He assumes the 
sum total of life in all animals to be equivalent to five 
times the number of years requisite to perfect their 
growth and development; — and he adopts as evidence 
of the period at which growth ceases, the final consoli- 
dation of the bones with their epiphyses ; which in the 
young consist of cartilages; but in the adult become 
uniformly osseous and solid. So long as the epiphyses 
are distinct from the bones, the growth of the animal 
is proceeding, but it ceases so soon as the consolidation 
is complete. In man, according to Fleurens, this con- 
summation takes place at 20 years of age, in the horse at 
1 Akistoteles de Anim. I viii. e. 9. 2 Menag. de Mus. Nat. p. 107. 
