t 
(7 3 ) ’ 
fore the Keepers of this Elephant with os, call'd it the white 
Elephant, in opposition to the black ones j whereof Horace , in 
the forecited Place, fays, Nigris digniffima Harris : But after 
they are affected with the Scab, this Diftin&ion of Colours is 
not obferv d. Authors tell us, as you have heard, that the firft 
thing they do when they begin to Tame them, is to anoint them 
with Oyl, whereby they keep their Skin fmooth, foft and flexi- 
ble, and relax their Pores fo, that whatever grofs Particles may 
fly off from their Blood, whofe Cqnftitution is now perhaps 
worfe by the alteration ef Dyet, and hardlhips they undergo at 
taming, may not flick to the Skin, but freely be evaporated. 
And 1 am credibly inform’d by fuch as have liv’d long in th tin* 
dies , that they take as much care to. keep the Skins of the Ele- 
phants fmooth and clear, as we do with our fine Horfes. Since 
then thefe Scabs are a Difeafe, and not Natural to the Animal, 
it is reafonable I fhould enquire into the Caufe of them • which 
to me feems to be a Crajfitie & Vifcojitate Sanguinis, whofe Par- 
ticles, becaufe of obftru&ed Pores, by a Cold too exceffive for 
their Body, do not foeafily fly off:, but after they have pafl the 
Cuticula , go no further than its Surface ; and becaufe of the Vif 
cofity of their Texture, do fo cleave to and heap upon one ano- 
ther, that they appear under the form of a Scab ^ which by the 
Evaporation of the more humid Particles, harden by degrees, 
and by the heat of the Sun are crack’d, rent, and divided : That 
Coldnef of the Weather will occalion grofs and vifcuous Blood, 
there’s none acquainted with the Diflempers in thefe Northern 
Countries will readily deny -, nor that mofc of thefe Diflempers 
proceed from the Obflrudions of Capillaries and Pores, and that 
this may be the caufe of thefe Scabs. I offer only this one Expe- 
riment; whatever Pieces of the Cuticula i obferv’d, where the 
Scabs were thin, there the Favi or Deprefiions were large and 
confpicuous •, but where they were very thick, there the Favi 
were very final!, and almoft imperceptible • which plainly im- 
plies, that wherever thefe Particles avolate freely, few adhere 
to the Surface of the Skin but when their Force is inhibited 
by the ftri&nefs of the Pores, they are unable to remove any 
further than they adhere to, and augment the Moles oi the Scab. 
Thefe, as is faid, are divided from one another by feveral Emet, jh e Seals 
or Reats, which may either be occafion’d by the^for.e-mention’d divided into* 
heat of the S«n, or by the different Pollute the Skin is put in by fevered 
the feveral Motions of the Body. Hence it 1?, that where the Rims, 
' " ' Skin,.. 
