GREAT ELEPHANT. 
ing till they are sixteen or twenty years old : they 
are said to live a hundred or a hundred and twenty 
years. 
In the Philosophical Transactions^ for the year 
1799> we find some curious particulars relative to 
the natural history of the Elephant, by Mr. Corse, 
whose residence in India afforded him opportuni- 
ties^ of investigating the subject v/ith exactness. 
From these observations it appears that some- 
thing must be subtracted from that elevated 
character with which this animal has been so fre- 
quently honoured; and that neither its docility 
nor its memory can be allowed a very high rank^ 
when compared with those of some other animals ; 
and that the scrupulous delicacy^ whichj as it was 
pretended, forbad all public demonstration of its 
passions, is a mere fable. A female Elephant has 
also been known to forget her young one, after 
having been separated from it for the short space 
of only two days^ and to repel its advances. An 
Elephant, also^ which had escaped from its con- 
finement, has again suffered itself to be trepanned, 
and reconducted to its state of captivity ; thus con- 
tradicting, in a remarkable manner^ the Horatian 
sentiment : 
Quae bellua ruptis. 
Cum semel effugit, reddit se prava catenis ? * 
Both male and female Elephants, Mr. Corse 
informs us, are divided by the natives of Bengal 
* What beast, deliver'd from the broken chain, 
perverse in folly, seeks his bonds again ? 
