144 MAMMALIA. [Chap. IV. 



elephant shooting in South Africa. The practice in 

 Ceylon is to aim invariably at the head, and the sportsman 

 finds his safety to consist in boldly facing the animal, 

 advancing to within fifteen paces, and lodging a bullet, 

 either in the temple or in the hollow over the eye, or in 

 a well-known spot immediately above the trunk, where 

 the weaker structure of the skull affords an easy access 

 to the brain. 1 The region of the ear is also a fatal spot, 

 and often resorted to, — the places I have mentioned in 

 the front of the head being only accessible when the 

 animal is " charging." Professor Harrison, in his 

 communication to the Royal Irish Academy on the 

 Anatomy of the Elephant, has rendered an intelligible 

 explanation of this in the following passage descriptive 

 of the cranium: — "it exhibits two remarkable facts: 

 first, the small space occupied by the brain ; and, 

 secondly j the beautiful and curious structure of the bones 

 of the head. The two tables of all these bones, except 

 the occipital, are separated by rows of large cells, some 

 from four to five inches in length, others only small^ 

 irregular, and honey-comb-like: — these all commu- 

 nicate with each other, and, through the frontal sinuses, 

 with the cavity of the nose, and also with the tympanum 

 or drum of each ear; consequently, as in some birds, 

 these cells are filled with air, and thus while the skull 

 attains a great size in order to afford an extensive surface 



1 The win er ability of the ele- standing the comparative facility 



phant in this region of the head of access to the brain afforded at 



was known to the ancients, and this spot, an ordinary leaden bul- 



Pliny, describing a combat of ele- let is not certain to penetrate, and 



phants in the amphitheatre at frequently becomes flattened. The 



Rome, says, that one was slain by hunters, to counteract this, are 



a single blow, "pilum sub oeulo accustomed to harden the ball, by 



adactum, in vitalia capitis vene- the introduction of a small portion 



rat" (Lib. viiL c 7.) Notwith- of type-metal along with the lead. 



