A TREATISE ON ELEPHANTS. 
consequently play in the act of prehension." — [Miall and Green- 
wood) The roof of the mouth is quite smooth ; the sides are formed 
by the cheeks, which are sufficiently loose to permit of limited motion 
of the jaws, the powerful muscles of which act chiefly in their grinding 
motion. In health the interior of the mouth is pinkish in colour 
and moist, the breath not unpleasant, appetite good (the elephant 
in its natural state, as has been already remarked, eating from i8 
to 20 hours during the 24). The upper lip is blended with the 
nostrils to form the trunk ; the lower lip is small and pointed. 
The cavity of the mouth is occupied chiefly by a muscular organ, the 
tongue, which is very small. The tip lies in the groove formed by 
the lower lip and the organ is possessed of more freedom posteriorly 
than anteriorly. It is the organ of taste. The pharynx is a cavity 
situated behind the tongue, and through it the food is conveyed to 
the gullet or oesophagus. A description of the teeth has already 
been given [see page 65). 
Fig. 32. — CEsophagus or gullet, after Harrison, from J. E. Tennent. 
CEsopJiagus or gullet, — The oesophagus or gullet is a muscular 
tube extending from the pharynx to the stomach ; the calibre of the 
tube is small. On the authority of Dr. Harrison, Tennent gives an 
illustration of a muscle passing from the posterior part of the wind- 
pipe to the gullet, which he thought might raise the cardiac orifice 
of the stomach an<i so aid this organ to regurgitate a portion of its 
contents into the oesophagus [see Fig. 32). 
Stomach. — The stomach (see Fig. 33) is a simple sac, unlike 
that of most herbivora, smooth externally and measures from 2\ to 
3 ft. long; that of the last elephant examined (a large tusker) 
