97 
makes a permanent stain upon it. Unless some process 
can be discovered that will soften ivory without discolouring 
it or decomposing it, or that does not make it tender and 
liable to crack, there is little hope that carving by hand will 
be superseded or rendered cheap. 
In the course of these observations I have stated, on the 
authority of a gentleman who was at some trouble to obtain 
the numbers, that the number of elephants' tusks imported 
annually was about 45,000, and as each animal produces only 
one pair, 22,500 elephants must be destroyed annually ; but, 
if we suppose that one-fifth of the tusks are of large size, and 
the animals which produced them to have died from natural 
causes, there yet remain 18,000 to be destroyed to produce 
the annual importation which takes place. I have conversed 
with many persons who still believe that elephants shed their 
tusks as stags do their horns ; but it is a fact, that these 
animals never shed any but the milk tusks, and these are 
said to be shed during the first or second year of the 
animal's growth. The origin of such a belief arises from 
the fact that some tusks, when they arrive in this country, 
have portions of muscular fibre adhering to them, and are 
designated as slaughtered tusks ; thereby inferring that all 
tusks which are free from such matters have been shed. 
This opinion, like many others that are erroneous on sub- 
jects of natural history, can only be eradicated by diffusing 
more correct information amongst all classes of the com- 
munity, which it is the duty, as it should be the 
pleasure, of every citizen to impart. Should the few brief 
and imperfect observations which have formed the subject of 
this paper assist, even in a small degree, to diffuse useful 
information, the end for which they were made will be 
answered. 
VOL. III. 
G 
