272 
A TREATISE ON ELEPHANTS. 
mucous membrane of the bile ducts with such tenacity as to resist 
the contraction of the bile ducts to expel them with the bile into the 
intestinal canal. The colour varies a great deal, depending to a 
great extent on the amount of bile they contain ; if their digestive 
system be full of bile, the colour is a dark brown or greenish black ; 
if empty; a dark yellowish brown. 
Cobbold gives the length, when unrolled, from ^ to -|- inch and 
the breadth from ^ to ^ inch. The habitat of flukes is in the bile 
ducts of the liver, which they invade from the opening through 
which the bile flows into the gut, situated a short way from the 
stomach, and it is to their presence that the disease known as rot 
owes its existence. In Burma flukes may occasionally be met with 
in- mules and ponies, but more frequently in oxen, buffaloes and 
elephants. Hawkes, a careful observer, who knew much about the 
diseases of elephants, constantly found after death these parasites 
in the bile ducts. This has frequently been my experience. While 
he was stationed at Secunderabad a high mortality occurred amongst 
the elephants under his charge. He attended the post-mortem 
examinations, and flukes were found in greater or less numbers in 
every case ; he also observed that other parasites were met w4th. 
A long account of an outbreak of rot which occurred in 1867 
amongst the Commissariat elephants stationed at Rangoon is given 
in a letter to the " Rangoon Times," dated the i6th July 1867, ^'"^ 
signed R. B." It appears that in the short space of fifteen days 
seven elephants died, and it was noticed that the mortality com- 
menced as the severity of the south-west monsoon increased. The 
outbreak was such a remarkable one that I give some extracts from 
the letter : — 
^ * Yhe first sign I noticed of the disease was the 
number of elephants which resorted to eating mud, the natural remedy 
provided by the animal's own instinct for the expulsion of intestinal 
worms. Perhaps the animal resorts to mud not only as a remedy 
for worms, but also when any excess of irritation in the bowels or 
stomach is felt ; however, be that as it may, in all the cases which 
came under my notice, I am confident the cause of death was from 
the presence of cystic and larval forms of the entozoa, which were 
found in abundance in the liver, lungs, and intestines of the animal. 
In the lower bowels or alimentary canal the common worms 
were found in great numbers, termed chotee " or mussodee " 
in Dr. Gilchrist's Treatise (a species of ascarides ?), and it was not 
until the liver and lungs had incisions made in them that the other 
kind was discovered. 
''The inside of the liver and cavities of the lungs were, I may 
say without exaggeration, positively alive with this species of 
