[84] “The elephant has another peculiarity in the internal structure of the stomach. It is longer and narrower than that of most animals. The cuticular membrane of the œsophagus terminates at the orifice of the stomach. At the cardiac end, which is very narrow and pointed at the extremity, the lining is thick and glandular, and is thrown into transverse folds, of which five are broad and nine narrow. That nearest the orifice of the œsophagus is the broadest, and appears to act occasionally as a valve, so that the part beyond may be considered as an appendage similar to that of the peccary and the hog. The membrane of the cardiac portion is uniformly smooth; that of the pyloric is thicker and more vascular.” (Lectures on Comparative Anatomy, by Sir Everard Home, Bart. 4to. Lond. vol. i. p. 155. The figure of the elephant’s stomach is given in his Lectures, vol. ii. plate xviii.)
[85] A similar arrangement, with some modifications, has more recently been found in the llama of the Andes, which, like the camel, is used as a beast of burden in the Cordilleras of Chili and Peru; but both these and the camel are ruminants, whilst the elephant belongs to the Pachydermata.
[86] Proceed. Roy. Irish. Acad. vol. iv. p. 133.
[87] Ayeen Akbery, transl. by Gladwin, vol. i. pt. i. p. 147.
[88] One of the Indian names for the elephant is duipa, which signifies “to drink twice.” (Amandi, p. 513.) Can this have reference to the peculiarity of the stomach for retaining a supply of water? Or has it merely reference to the habit of the animal to fill his trunk before transferring the water to his mouth?
[89] The buffalo and the humped cattle of India, which are used for draught and burden, have, I believe, a development somewhat more conspicuous than in the rest of their congeners, of the organisation of the reticulum which enables the ruminants generally to endure thirst, and abstain from water, but nothing in them approaches in singularity of character to the distinct cavities in the stomach exhibited by the three animals above alluded to.
[90] For an explanation of this term, see Sir J. Emerson Tennent’s Ceylon, etc. vol. i. p. 498.
[91] “One of the strongest instincts which the elephant possesses, is this which impels him to experiment upon the solidity of every surface which he is required to cross.”—Menageries, etc. “The Elephant,” vol. i. pp. 17, 19, 66.
[92] Wolf’s Life and Adventures, p. 151.
[93] Private Letter from Dr. Davy, author of An Account of the Interior of Ceylon.