THE SKELETON. 
65 
The lower jaw is short, the ascending portion being almost as 
large as the horizontal branch ; the junction between the two is 
large for the proboscis. 
Fig. 31. — Brain of the elephant, showing origin of important nerves, 
from J. Emerson Tennent. 
short and pointed. The dental canal is wide and excavated to 
accommodate the enormous grinders and to afford space for the 
formation and growth of the succeeding teeth. 
Teeth ; [Dentition. — 2 jo, c. — 0/0, m. — 6-6/6-6.) — The teeth 
are large, complex, and special in their mode of replacement. 
Steel in his Indian Veterinary Manual gives an excellent 
description of the process, which I take the liberty of quoting : 
Generally on each side of each jaw two or three teeth may be 
seen ; the front one is small, often loose, and is sometimes shed, 
because the growth of the second gradually cuts off the supply of 
nutriment by compression of the fangs. The second or main tooth 
consists of a number of subdivisions composed of dentine coated 
by enamel, arranged in a linear series from before backwards. 
All these are buried in an enormous bed of cementum, layers of 
which are between each subdivision, and coating every part of the 
surface, except the depressions for the pulp cavities and the table 
or grinding surface of the tooth." In the Indian elephant the 
enamel on the tables is arranged in transverse ridges. Only two 
teeth as a rule can be seen on each side of the jaw ; these are 
pushed out and replaced by others growing from behind. Many 
male elephants possess tusks ; these are placed in the premaxillary 
bone ; they grow from a persistent pulp. 
The statement of Corse in Brewster's Edinburgh Encyclopaedia 
with reference to the growth of the teeth, and quoted by Steel 
(''Indian Veterinary Manual,'^ page 28), is most interesting: ''The 
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