THE 
VETERINARIAN. 
VOL. XXIX, TTTT v 1 QKC Fourth Series, 
No. 343. JUm, 18&0. No. 19. 
Communications and Cases. 
ON THE RELATIVE WEIGHT OF THE BODY AND 
OF THE VISCERA OF THE ELEPHANT. 
By Edwards Crisp, M.D. 
In July, 1854, I made a communication to the Zoological 
Society on the weight and form of the viscera of the elephant, 
and I exhibited drawings of the thoracic and abdominal 
viscera of the size of life. I made some additional observations 
on the same subject at the Physiological Society of London, 
an abstract of which is published in the medical journals (the 
Lancet and Medical Gazette). 
The animal I had then dissected was a male elephant, 
which died on Marsden Moor, in Yorkshire, in the mena- 
gerie of Mr. Womb well. The recent death of the female 
elephant in the Society’s collection enables me to extend my 
observations, and I purpose now only giving the comparative 
weight of the bodies and of the viscera of these animals, with 
a few additional remarks. 
The age of the male was twenty-two years, and he mea- 
sured ten feet from the highest part of his back. The animal, 
prepared by Mr. Bartlett, is now in the Crystal Palace. 
The cause of death, inflamed lungs. The weight stated at 
the Railway was three tons when the body was eviscerated, 
but, judging from the weight of the last specimen, it could 
not altogether have exceeded three tons, and assuming this to 
have been the weight, the relative proportion of the viscera is 
about as follows : 
Brain, 12 lbs. 
Lungs, 47 lbs. 8 oz. 
Heart, 17 lbs. 9 oz. g ^. 
Liver, 33 lbs. 12 oz. 
Spleen, 6 lbs. 9 oz. t3 ^. 
Right kidney, 7 lbs. 2 oz. ^ . 1 Supra-renal capsules 
Left kidney, 5 lbs. 10 oz. J included. 
Alimentary canal, 106 feet. 
XXIX. 
48 
