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 LongeviU ffuwaine." 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. c. 9. 2 Menag. deMus. Nat. p. 107. 



