68 VETERINARY MEDICAL ASSOCIATION* 
functional derangement, besides which it may be repeated accord¬ 
ing to the requirements and symptoms of the case. The result 
to be hoped for would be, that the “must” period would not last 
so long and the animal would be less violent. 
I do not advocate the system of administering strong sedatives 
and other similar medicines in these cases, as is the practice 
in some parts, for such treatment is liable to stop the flow of the 
secretion altogether , and cause lethargy, sinking, and collapse, 
and often the death of the animal. 
Nature cannot be interfered with in her functions, beyond a 
certain extent, with any safety. 
This visitation, if I may so term it, is not very regular. Often 
it does not happen for many consecutive seasons, especially with 
animals regularly worked, so that we may conclude that a ple¬ 
thoric state of the body is favorable to its development. It also 
never occurs until a male has arrived at the age of puberty, which 
would be from twenty-five to thirty years of age. 
The tusks are evidently weapons of offence and defence : they 
are also used for procuring food, tearing bark off trees, digging 
clay from the banks (a peculiar yellow clay, which cattle are very 
fond of), prising down bamboos from out of their thorny clumps, 
(where, from the multiplicity of thorns, the trunk would be too 
tender to perform that office), also for detaching earth and roots 
from tufts of grass and shrubs whilst feeding. The animal is 
also often seen to hang the trunk across the tusks, as if to relieve 
itself of its weight. 
In a domestic state the elephant uses the tusks for lifting 
heavy weights, turning over ponderous beams of wood in the 
dockyards, or dragging them, when needed, by ropes twisted round 
his tusks. 
In many parts elephants drag very heavy loads by the aid of 
their molar teeth, which are four in number, two in each jaw. 
They are set in their alveolar cavities in a very peculiar manner, 
something similar to a horse's. It would therefore be impossible 
to extract them without fracturing the walls of the cavities. 
These molars increase in size proportionately with the age of 
the animal, being renewed horizontally and from behind. 
In extreme old age their corrugated surfaces are worn quite 
smooth, and level with the gums. Posteriorly, are found several 
detached plates of tooth; from which we may conclude that the 
molars are constructed of several layers or plates, placed vertically 
one against the other, and that they increase in size from before 
backwards. 
In the foregoing remarks I have somewdmt anticipated the 
second branch of my subject, viz.: 
