pounds each in weight; though tusks have been brought to the India House weighing one hundred and fifty pounds each. Bernier saw two remarkable tusks in India, each of which was too heavy for a man to lift. Cuvier is of opinion that our knowledge of the African elephant, limited as it is, warrants us in concluding that the females of that species have large tusks; and that the disproportion of their size in the two sexes is far less than in the Indian species. This opinion, however, is not borne out by travellers. Mr. Burchell ascribes the want of success of some elephant hunters whom he met with, to the circumstance of their having only encountered females with small tusks. Cuvier has published a table of the length, diameter, and weight of the largest tusks, whether of the Indian or African species, of which any account has been given. The largest on record was one sold at Amstersdam, according to Klokner, which weighed three hundred and fifty pounds. Several tusks, measured by Eden, were nine feet in length; and one described by Hartenfels, in his Elephantographia, exceeded fourteen feet. The largest in the Museum of Natural History at Paris is nearly seven feet in length, and about five inches and a half in diameter at the large end. As the tusks grow throughout the life of the animal, and the rest of the body does not, they offer no certain standard by which we can estimate the size of the elephant to which they have belonged. Nor can we establish any proportion between their diameter and their length, as they are liable to be worn at the points, according to the use which the animal makes of them. There is no relation, either, between their weight and their dimensions, as the cavity at the base is more or less filled, in particular individuals of the same species. The cur

* Annales du Muséum, tom. viii, p. 131,

vature of the tusks is also subject to great variations. Some of the Indian elephants, with large teeth, called Dauntelah, have their tusks varying from a projecting horizontal but rather elevated curve, to a form almost straight. Those elephants which are called Mooknah, have their tusks pointing directly downwards. Several tusks are preserved in European cabinets, of the most remarkable form; some being spiral, and others, which are more common, in the shape of an italic S. It is probable, in the present day, when herds of elephants are scarce, as compared with times of less advanced civilization, and when those which are found are hunted for their ivory without remorse, that few elephants live the natural term of their life; and that the tusks, therefore, which come to Europe, are of smaller size than those possessed by the ancients. We shall examine this point in a subsequent chapter on the use of ivory by the ancients in architecture and sculpture.

The construction of the elephant's grinding teeth is one of the most striking examples of the adaptation of the teeth of every animal to its peculiar mode of subsistence. It is evident, that as the elephant has not a ruminating stomach, and yet requires vast quantities of vegetable food for his support, the instruments by which he masticates his food should be either more durable than in other herbivorous animals, or should be renewed when their grinding surfaces are worn away. The duration of the teeth of all quadrupeds is in proportion to their ordinary term of existence. In man, whose artificial modes of life may induce a quicker decay of the teeth, but who can supply the deficiency by the art which teaches him to prepare his food so as to suit his powers of mastication, the complete loss of teeth does not necessarily indicate a termination of life. But to an animal that feeds upon grass, and other indigestible vegetable substances,

the destruction of the teeth involves a speedy death; and therefore, in most cases, the decay of the teeth is simultaneous with a general decay. "The teeth of the deer and sheep are worn down in a much less time than fifteen years; those of horned cattle in twenty years; those of the horse in forty or fifty years; while those of the elephant last a century: if the animal were to grow to double its present size, there is a provision for the continuance of the teeth: but as soon as the growth of the jaw is stopped, the succession of the teeth is arrested also, which fixes the duration of the animal's life *" The provision which Nature has made for enabling the elephant to masticate not only a larger quantity of food than other animals, but through a much greater series of years -to wear his teeth more, and to wear them longer— is by securing their renewal when they are worn out.

To describe the peculiar manner in which this remarkable operation is effected would lead us into a description of the mode in which teeth generally are formed. To the anatomical student this branch of his science is singularly interesting; and on the subject of the elephant's teeth, he may find the most complete and satisfactory dissertations in Cuvier's admirable article, "Sur les machelières des éléphans†;" and in Sir Everard Home's Lecture on the Complex Teeth. For popular information we transcribe a passage of a very well-written paper on elephants, which had the advantage of Mr. Corse's revision, in Dr. Brewster's Edinburgh Encyclopædia:

"The elephant has no cutting teeth in either jaw in front; but he is furnished with most powerful grinders, that enable him to bruise the vegetables on which he feeds. These teeth, as in all herbivorous animals, have an uneven surface; but do not rise *Home's Comp. Anat. vol. i., p.

+ Ann, du Muş. tom. viii. p. 93.

215. Comp, Anat, i, 203.

into points as in animals which feed on flesh. Each grinder is composed of a number of perpendicular laminæ, which may be considered as so many teeth, each covered with a strong enamel, and joined to one another by a bony substance of the same quality as ivory. This last substance, being much softer than the enamel, wears away faster by the mastication of the food, so that the enamel remains considerably higher; and, in this manner, the surface of each grinder acquires a ribbed appearance, as if originally formed with ridges. From very accurate observations which have been made on the Asiatic elephant, it appears, that the first set of grinders, or milk teeth, begin to cut the jaw eight or ten days after birth, and the grinders of the upper jaw appear before those of the lower one. These milk grinders are not shed, but are gradually worn away during the time the second set are coming forward, and as soon as the body of the grinder is nearly worn away, the fangs begin to be absorbed. From the end of the second to the beginning of the sixth year, the third set come gradually forward as the jaw lengthens, not only to fill up this additional space, but also to supply the place of the second set, which are, during the same period, gradually worn away, and have their fangs absorbed. From the beginning of the sixth, to the end of the ninth year, the fourth set of grinders come forward, to supply the gradual waste of the third set. In this manner, to the end of life, the elephant obtains a set of new teeth as the old ones become unfit for the mastication of his food.

"The milk grinders consist each of four teeth, or laminæ; the second set of grinders of eight or nine laminæ; the third set of twelve or thirteen; the fourth set of fifteen, and so on to the seventh or eighth set, when each grinder consists of twenty-two or twenty-three; and it may be added, that each suc

ceeding grinder takes at least a year more than its predecessor to be completed."

In the cut at page 47 (Section of the Elephant's skull), h shews the anterior tooth reduced almost to nothing, by detrition, and by the compression of the succeeding tooth, and its own alveole. i shews the tooth in activity, the roots of which begin to form at k; the triturating part is already used on its face, l. The posterior laminæ are yet untouched. n is the germ of the back-tooth, still enclosed in its membranous cover (capsule), and lodged in a cavity of the back jaw *.

We have already mentioned an instance of the ferocity of the elephant under a peculiar state of excitement, as observed by Mr. Corse. This state is indicated in both sexes, and is probably in some degree relieved, by the secretion of a brownish juice from a considerable gland at the temple, through an opening in the skin. This aperture is situated between the ear and the eye, on each side of the head, and the gland is immediately under the skin, on each side also. The glands are as much as six inches in diameter, but the aperture is scarcely perceptible †. This peculiarity is noticed by Strabo; and the Indian mythology has seized upon the circumstance as the foundation for one of its fanciful devices:-" The Hindoo poets frequently allude to the fragrant juice which oozes, at certain seasons, from small ducts in the temples of the male elephant, and is useful in relieving him from the redundant moisture with which he is then oppressed; and they even describe the bees as allured by the scent, and mistaking it for that of the sweetest flowers. When Crishna visited Sanc'ha-dwip, and had destroyed the demon who

* For a more minute representation of these parts, see Annales du Muséum, tom. viii. pl. 41.

† Mémoires de L'Académie des Sciences, tom, iii.