ELI 
ELE 
are possessed of more docility, sagacity, 
and obedience than the elephant. In the 
East they have been employed not only 
for labour, but for pomp, from the most 
remote periods of antiquity. They swim 
with great facility, and have been fre- 
quently of the most important service in 
transporting the baggage of armies over 
vast rivers. In swimming the trunk only 
appears above the surface of tlie water, 
effecting all the purposes of respiration. 
One of these animals will execute the work 
of several horses, and the promptitude, in- 
telligence, and affection they display to their 
keeper, are singularly interesting. His voice 
is distinguished with unfailing accuracy ; his 
tones of approval or anger, of command, at- 
tachment, or menace, are most nicely discri- 
minated, and followed by corresponding 
acts and exertions. They will kneel down 
to facilitate his mounting on their backs, 
and assist him also in this operation with 
iheir trunk, with which they will likewise 
fi’equently smooth and cai'ess him. They 
are employed in drawing large caravans, 
and even chariots, in the East, and appear 
pleased with the splendid and dazzling fur- 
niture in which they are often arrayed. They 
manifest extreme sensibility to honour and 
disgrace, and, to maintain the character 
of respectability, fidelity, and strength 
with their keeper, have been known, merely 
on his temporary ejaculation of disgust at 
the apparent relaxation of their efforts, to 
renew them with the most extraordinary 
animation, and even with the most fatal 
result. 
Though formerly applied for the purposes 
of war, as was particularly the case against 
Alexander near the Hydaspes, and by Pyr- 
rhus against the Romans, they were fre- 
quently more formidable to their owners 
than to tlie enemy, and, when wounded, 
exhibited a scene of extreme turbulence 
and confusion : and the invention of gun- 
powder appears to have precluded that ad- 
vantage from their efforts in actual combat, 
which might, in some instances, in former 
ages, be occasionally derived from them. 
They are now chiefly employed in India for 
the purpose of state, or of labour, always 
forming an indispensible part of the mag- 
nificence attending a royal progress in the 
East. The vast quantities of baggage which 
are taken in those circuits are carried by 
some ; while others, most splendidly arrayed, 
convey, in gilded and latticed houses, upon 
their backs, the ladies of the palace. It is 
stated that they are also employed some- 
times in the execution of criminals, whe- 
ther by trampling to death, fracturing the 
limbs of the unhappy convicts with their 
trunk, or impaling them on their tusks ; fol- 
lowing, for these purposes, the signals of 
their keepers, with complete precision and 
alertness. 
The female produces but one young at 
a time, after a period of gestation consist- 
ing, according to some authorities, of two, 
and to others of three years. Elephants 
are tliirty years before they attain their ma- 
turity, and are reported to live, even in a 
state of confinement, upwards of a cen- 
tury. In this state of captivity, however, 
they have proved, in every instance, bar- 
ren ; and this circumstance obliges eastern 
princes to supply the waste of accident, 
disease, and decay, by having annually re- 
course to the immense forests in which they 
abound. The hunting of them on these 
occasions is, indeed, an imperial sport, ex- 
citing very considerable interest, and at- 
tended with the most elaborate preparation. 
For the figure of tlie elephant, see Mam- 
malia, Plate X. fig. 1. 
ELEVATION, the same with altitude 
or height. 
Elevation, angle of, in gunnery, that 
comprehended between the horizon and 
the line of direction of a cannon or mortar ; 
or it is that which the chase of a piece, or 
the axis of its hollow cylinder, makes with 
tlie plane of the horizon. 
ELEVATOR, in anatomy, the name of 
several muscles, so called from their serv- 
ing to raise the parts of the body to which 
they belong. 
ELEVATORY, in surgery, an instru- 
ment for raising depressed or fractured 
parts of the scull, to be applied after the 
integuments and periosteum are removed. 
If there is any hole, the instrument must 
be fastened to it ; but if there is none, the 
screw-end of the instrument must be ap- 
plied. See Surgery. 
ELISION, in grammar, the cutting off 
or suppressing a vowel at the end of a 
word, for the sake of sound or measure, the 
next word beginning with a vowel. 
ELIXIR, in medicine, a compound tinc- 
ture extracted from many efficacious in- 
gredients ; hence the difference between a 
tincture and an elixir seems to be this, that 
a tincture is drawn from one ingredient, 
sometimes with an addition of another to 
open it, and to dispose it to yield to' the 
