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MAMMALIA. 
little eminences, which, resemble the feet [or, rather, not the feet, 
but the pro-legs] of Silkworms. 
The first portion of the trunk is situated at the point which 
forms the extremity of the nose in other animals ; it serves it in 
lieu of a nose, since the interior side serves as a lip, and the 
nostrils are placed within ; in fact, this organ is hollow in the 
interior, and a partition divides it into two channels. At the 
point at which these channels or pipes touch the bony walls which 
terminate them, and which contain the organ of scent, they are 
provided with a little cartilaginous and elastic valve, which the 
animal can open and shut at will. This arrangement prevents 
the liquids used as drink from entering into the organ specially 
intended for the sense of smelling. 
Between the internal channels of the trunk and its external 
membrane are implanted numerous longitudinal, transversal, and 
radiating muscles, the contraction or dilation of which bring 
about or cause the quickest, strongest, and most varied movements 
and inflections. The trunk is terminated in a concavity, in the 
indentation of which are the orifices of the nostrils. The upper 
part of the border is prolonged into a sort of finger, which is 
about five inches long. This extremity seizes hold of objects with 
so much delicacy, that it can pick up a grain of wheat, a fly, or 
a straw. 
The Elephant’s tusks are nothing but the incisive teeth pro- 
digiously elongated. Turned obliquely downwards, forwards, out- 
wards, and ultimately upwards. They are sometimes more than 
two metres and a half in length, and weigh as many as from fifty 
to sixty kilogrammes. In the females they are sometimes very 
slightly elongated, and do not project beyond the lips.* 
The tusks serve the Elephant for defensive and offensive weapons. 
They protect the trunk, which curls up between them, when 
the animal traverses woods in which there are many thorns, 
prickles, and thick brushwood. The Elephant also uses them for 
putting aside and holding down the branches, when, with its trunk, 
it is about to pluck off the tops of leafy boughs. 
The ivory, which is so much used in trade, and which is so 
* In the Indian species they are indeed wanting in the females, so also, either 
one or both of them, in not a few of the males, which are styled Maknas, while the j 
tusked males are called Dent’halas . — Ed. 
