. Ceylon : an account of the island, physical, historical, and topographical with notices of its natural history, antiquities and productions. Natural history -- Sri Lanka; Sri Lanka. 288 THE ELEPHAXT. [Part VIII. of directing the range of liis eye much above the level of his heacl.^ The elephant's small range of vision is sufficient to account for his excessive caution, his alarm at unusual noises, and the timidity and panic exhibited by him at trivial objects and incidents wliich, imperfectly discerned, excite his suspicions for his safety.^ In 1841 an officer^ was chased by an elephant whic
. Ceylon : an account of the island, physical, historical, and topographical with notices of its natural history, antiquities and productions. Natural history -- Sri Lanka; Sri Lanka. 288 THE ELEPHAXT. [Part VIII. of directing the range of liis eye much above the level of his heacl.^ The elephant's small range of vision is sufficient to account for his excessive caution, his alarm at unusual noises, and the timidity and panic exhibited by him at trivial objects and incidents wliich, imperfectly discerned, excite his suspicions for his safety.^ In 1841 an officer^ was chased by an elephant which he had shghtly wounded; and which seizing him in the dry bed of a river, had its fore-foot already raised to crush him; but the animal's forehead being caught at the instant by the tendrils of a climbing plant which had suspended itself from the branches above, it suddenly tm-ned and fled; lea\dng him badly hurt, but with no hmb broken. I have heard many similar instances, equally well attested, of this pecuharity in the elephant. ^ After writing tlie above, I was pemiitted by the late Dr. , of Dublin, to see some accui-ate drawings of the brain of an elephant, which he had the opportunity of dissecting in 1847, and on looking to that of the base, I have found a re- marliable verification of the informa- tion which I collected in Cejdon. The small figm-e A is the ganglion of the fifth nerve, showing the small motor and lai'ge sensitive The olfactory lobes, from which the olfactoiy nerves proceed, are large, whilst the optic and 7ni(scular nerves of the orbit arc sinf/iilarli/ small for so vast an animal; and one is immediately strucli by the prodi- gious size of the filth nerve, which supplies the proboscis with its ex- quisite sensibility, as well as by the gi'eat size of the motor portion of Olfactory lobes — large. Optic nerve — small. Third pair — small. Fourth pair — small. The two poTtions of the fifth pair, the sensitive portion very large,
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