Elemen´tal Spirits, according to a belief common in the Middle Ages, spirits proper to and partaking of the four so-called elements, viz. salamanders or fire spirits, sylphs or aerial spirits, gnomes or earth spirits, and undines or water spirits.
El´ements, the simplest constituent principles or parts of anything; in a special sense, the ultimate indecomposable constituents of any kind of matter. In ancient philosophies the term was applied to fire, air, earth, and water. The mediæval chemists, however, absorbed in the study of metals and mineral substances, supposed that the metals consisted of an elemental sulphur and an elemental mercury mixed together more or less perfectly and in different proportions. To these were subsequently added salt and some others, so that about the middle of the seventeenth century the first principles amounted to five, divided into two classes; the active, consisting of mercury or spirit, sulphur or oil, and salt; and the passive, consisting of water or phlegm, and earth or the terrestrial part. The names remained, not so much as denoting substances or ultimate principles as gradually coming to denote functions; the first great modification being the expansion of the idea of elemental sulphur into phlogiston by Stahl, as the result of which the adherents of the phlogistic theory applied the term phlogiston to the gases then discovered, the mineral, vegetable, and animal acids, the alkalies, earths, and metallic calces, oil, alcohol, and water. The substances considered as simple naturally changed with the change of theory introduced by Lavoisier, who considered as elements, oxygen, nitrogen, hydrogen, sulphur, phosphorus, and carbon, the metals and the earths, and, as Boyle had already suggested, practically defined an element as a body not yet decomposed, the definition now commonly adopted. For list of known elements see Chemistry.
El´emi, the fragrant resinous exudation from various trees, such as the Canarium commune, from which the Eastern or Manila elemi is obtained; the Icīca Icīcarība, the source of the American or Brazilian elemi; and the Elaphrium elemifĕrum, from which the Mexican elemi comes. It is a regular constituent of spirit varnishes, and is used in medicine, mixed with simple ointment, as a plaster.
El´ephant, the popular name of a genus, family, or sub-order of five-toed proboscidian mammals, usually regarded as comprehending two species, the Asiatic (Elephas indicus) and the African (E. africānus). From a difference in the teeth, however, the two species are sometimes referred to distinct genera (Euelephas and Loxodon). The so-called white elephants are merely albinos. The African elephant is distinguished from the Asiatic species by its greater height, its larger ears, its less elevated head and bulging or convex forehead, the closer approximation of the roots of the tusks, and the greater density of the bone. It has also only three external hoofs on the hind-feet, while the Asiatic has four. All elephants are remarkable for their large, heavy, short bodies supported on columnar limbs, a very short neck, a skull with lofty crown and short face-bones, with the exception of the premaxillaries, which are enlarged to form tusk-sockets. To compensate for the short neck, they have the long proboscis, often 4 or 5 feet in length, produced by the union and development of the nose and upper lip. It is made up of muscular and fibrous tissue. The trunk is of great strength and sensibility, and serves alike for respiration, smell, taste, suction, touch, and prehension. The tusks, which are enormously developed upper incisor teeth, are not visible in young animals, but in a state of maturity they project in some instances 7 or 8 feet. The largest on record (undoubtedly that of an extinct species) weighed 350 lb. Elephants sometimes attain the height of 12 feet or more, but their general height
is about 9 or 10 feet. Their weight ranges from 4000 to 9000 lb. The period of gestation is twenty months, and the female seldom produces more than one calf at a birth: this, when first born, is about 3 feet high, and continues to grow till it is sixteen or eighteen years of age. It is said that they live to the age of 150 years. They feed on vegetables, the young shoots of trees, grain, and fruit. They are polygamous, associating in herds of a considerable size under the guidance of a single leader. An elephant leaving or driven from a herd is not allowed to join another, but leads a lonely, morose, and destructive life. Such solitary elephants are known as 'rogues'. Elephants are caught either singly or in herds. In the former case it is necessary to catch adroitly one of the elephant's legs in the noose of a strong rope, which is then quickly attached to a tree; another leg is then caught, until all are securely fastened. His captors then encamp beside him, until under their treatment he becomes tractable. When a herd is to be caught a strong enclosure is constructed, and into this the elephants are gradually driven by fires, noise, &c. With the aid of tame elephants the wild ones are tied to trees and subjected to the taming process. The domesticated elephant requires much care, and a plentiful supply of food, being liable to many ailments. The daily consumption of a working elephant is, according to Sir J. E. Tennent, 2 cwt. of green food, about half a bushel of grain, and about 40 gallons of water. Their enormous strength, docility, and sagacity make them of great value in the East for road-making, building, and transport. They are used by the great on occasions of pomp and show, being often richly caparisoned, and bearing on their back a howdah containing one or more riders, besides the mahout or driver sitting on the animal's neck. Tiger-shooting is often practised from an elephant's back. Several extinct species are known, the most notable being the mammoth (E. primigenius), a contemporary of prehistoric man. The allied genus Mastodon was of very wide distribution, and the Tertiary deposits of the Fayum (Egypt) have yielded the remains of types that bridge over the gap between elephants and more typical quadrupeds. See Mammoth; Mastodon.—Bibliography: Andersson, The Lion and the Elephant; Sir. J. E. Tennent, The Wild Elephant in Ceylon; Sanderson, Wild Beasts of India; R. Lydekker, The Game Animals of Africa.
Elephan´ta Isle, or Gharapuri, a small island in the Bay of Bombay, between Bombay and the mainland, 6 miles north-east of the former; circumference about 5 miles. It consists of two long hills chiefly overgrown with wood. A city is supposed to have flourished on the island between the third and tenth centuries, but now it has only a few inhabitants, who rear sheep and poultry for the Bombay market. It is celebrated for its rock temples or caves, the chief of which is a cave-temple supposed by Fergusson to belong to the tenth century, 130 feet long, 123 broad, and 18 high. It is supported by pillars cut out of the rock, and containing a colossal figure of the trimurti or Hindu Trinity: Brahma, Vishnu, and Siva. The temple is still used by the Bania caste for the Sawa at certain festivals.
Elephant-fish (Callorhynchus antarcticus), a fish of the sub-class Elasmobranchii (rays and sharks), so named from a proboscis-like structure on the nose: called also Southern Chimæra. It inhabits the Antarctic seas, and is palatable eating.
Elephantiasis is a disease characterized by progressive enlargement of a limb, or portion of the body, and occurs most frequently in the legs. The enlargement begins below the knee and gradually involves the entire limb. The onset may be slow and painless, or sudden with fever and rapid swelling. The disease is common in all countries in which the Filariæ prevail. No drug destroys the embryos in the blood, and in infected districts the drinking-water should be boiled or filtered. In rapid cases rest, liquid diet, purgation, and firm bandaging of the legs are indicated. Surgical treatment for removal of adult Filariæ in enlarged glands has met with some success.