106 
OF THE VESSELS 
example, what deglutition, what anhelation! yet does this 
little cartilage, the epiglottis, so effectually interpose its of¬ 
fice, so securely guard the entrance of the windpipe, that 
whilst morsel after morsel, draught after draught, are cours¬ 
ing one another over it, an accident of a crumb or a drop 
slipping into this passage, (which nevertheless must be 
opened for the breath every second of time,) excites in the 
whole company, not only alarm by its danger, but surprise 
by its novelty. Not two guests are choked in a century.* 
There is no room for pretending that the action of the 
parts may have gradually formed the epiglottis: I do not 
mean in the same individual, but in a succession of genera¬ 
tions. Not only the action of the parts has no such ten¬ 
dency, but the animal could not live, nor consequently the 
parts act, either without it, or with it in a half-formed state. 
The species was not to wait for the gradual formation or 
expansion of a part which was, from the first, necessary to 
the life of the individual. 
Not only is the larynx curious, but the whole windpipe 
possesses a structure adapted to its peculiar office. It is 
made up (as any one may perceive by putting his fingers 
to his throat) of stout cartilaginous ringlets placed at 
small and equal distances from one another. Now this is 
not the case with any other of the numerous conduits of 
the body. The use of these cartilages is to keep the pas¬ 
sage for the air constantly open; which they do mechanic¬ 
ally. A pipe with soft membranous coats, liable to col¬ 
lapse and close when empty, would not have answered here; 
although this be the general vascular structure, and a 
structure which serves very well for those tubes which are 
kept in a state of perpetual distension by the fluid they en¬ 
close, or which afford a passage to solid and protruding 
substances. 
Nevertheless (which is another particularity well worthy 
* The same general structure of these parts is found in all other animals 
of the same class with mankind, but there is a singular variation from it 
in the elephant, by which, if possible, the influence of a deriving intelli¬ 
gence is more wonderfully exemplified than in the ordinary structure. It 
is well known that this animal drinks by sucking up the liquid into its 
trunk, and then after thrusting the end of it into its mouth, blowing the 
liquid into its throat. In this case, the act of blowing through the trunk 
and swallowing, must be both going on at the same instant, and not in 
successive instants as in man. The liquid must be passing down the 
throat, while the epiglottis is open and the air issuing. In order to pro¬ 
vide against interference, a channel is provided on each side of the epig¬ 
lottis, along which the drink passes quietly on, without running into the 
windpipe.— Ed. 
