THE TRUNK. 
245 
Scientifically to describe so well-known an animal 
as the elephant, would be worse than superfluous; 
and I shall therefore confine myself to speaking of its 
more striking features. 
The most remarkable of these, probably, is its 
proboscis, or trunk, which is composed of mem¬ 
branes, nerves, and muscles, and, in a full-grown 
male, is some eight feet in length, and about five 
feet in circumference at the base. Indeed, of all 
the instruments which nature has liberally bestowed 
on her most favoured productions, it is, perhaps, 
the most complete, and from time immemorial 
has commanded the admiration of all who have 
witnessed its remarkable power. Cicero calls it, 
by a bold figure of speech, “ the elephant’s hand.” 
Lucretius, even more expressively, describes it by 
the word anguimanus , the snake hand; and the 
Caffre, when he kills an elephant, approaches the 
trunk with superstitious awe, and, cutting it off, 
solemnly inters it, repeatedly exclaiming, €C The 
elephant is a great lord, and the trunk is his 
hand.” 
It is an organ of both feeling and motion. The 
animal can not only move and bend it, but can con¬ 
tract, lengthen, and turn it in every direction. The 
trunk is terminated by an extremely flexible pro¬ 
longation of the muscles, destined to seize whatever 
the animal desires. This may be considered his 
finger, and opposed to it is a sort of thumb, which 
enables him to hold fast the object which he wishes 
to take up. Between the two are the nostrils. The 
parts in question are equally flexible, and as capable 
