43 Ancient medal-head of Socrates united with tha t of an elephant 230 44 Elephant worshipping the Sun and Moon from a Chinese sacred 52 Medal of Alexander wearing the head-skin of an elephant 59 Medal in honour of Julius Cæsar, struck by Trajan 60 Medal representing the triumphal arch voted by the Senate to 61 Medal of the funereal honours paid to Augustus 62 Statue of Romulus drawn by elephants, from a bas-relief described . The Indian Elephant.-Elephas Indieus, CUVIER. In the year 1681 an elephant was accidentally destroyed by fire, in a booth, in the city of Dublin; "and when the fire was extinguished, every one endeavoured to procure some part of the elephant, few of them having seen him living, by reason of the great rates put upon the sight of himt." We menFrom a young female in Mr. Cross's Menagerie, in 1828. +Anatomical account of the Elephant accidentally burnt in Dublin, 1682. tion this circumstance to contrast it with the familiar acquaintance which almost every child of the present day has with this quadruped. 66 A century and a half ago, the elephant was rarely brought to these islands; and, for this reason, the multitude had not only extravagant ideas of the intelligence of this most interesting animal, but believed a great many absurdities regarding it, which opportunities of observation would have speedily eradicated. Thus, when Sir Thomas Brown wrote his Enquiries into vulgar and common Errors," he states it to have been the prevalent opinion up to his time (about 1670) that the elephant had no joints, and that it never lay down. In a very curious specimen of our early natural history, "The Dialogues of Creatures Moralyzed," mention is made of "the olefawnte that boweth not the knees." In an old play printed in 1633, a woman is described as stubborn as an elephant's leg-no bending in her ;" and Shakspeare makes Ulysses, in Troilus and Cressida, say, “the elephant hath joints, but none for courtesy: his legs are legs for necessity, not for flexure." These passages shew the extent of the popular notion; to refute which Sir T. Brown appeals to experience, "whereof not many years past we have had the advantage in England, by an elephant shewn in many parts thereof, not only in the posture of standing, but kneeling and lying down*.' This exhibition appears to have produced the beneficial effects of all direct appeals to the senses, with respect to errors which are capable of being refuted by such a test; for it seems that the false opinions regarding the elephant were "well suppressed," by the demonstration that he had no difficulty in assuming those positions which, on account of his bulk, were affirmed to be impossible. Sir Thomas Brown, however, dreads the revival of *Book iii. chap. 1. |