In 1723 Dr. WM. STUCKLEY published Some Anatomical Observations made upon the Dissection of an Elephant; but each of the above essays is necessarily unsatisfactory, and little has since been done to supply their defects.  One of the latest and most valuable contributions to the subjects, is a paper read before the Royal Irish Academy, on the 18th of Feb., 1847, by Professor HARRISON, who had the opportunity of dissecting an Indian elephant which died of acute fever; but the examination, so far as he has made it public, extends only to the cranium, the brain, and the proboscis, the larynx, trachea, and oesophagus.  An essential service would be rendered to science if some sportsman in Ceylon, or some of the officers connected with the elephant establishment there, would take the trouble to forward the carcase of a young one to England in a state fit for dissection.

Postscriptum.—­I am happy to say that a young elephant, carefully preserved in spirits, has recently been obtained in Ceylon, and forwarded to Prof.  Owen, of the British Museum, by the joint exertions of M. DIARD and Major SKINNER.  An opportunity has thus been afforded from which science will reap advantage, of devoting a patient attention to the internal structure of this interesting animal.]

[Footnote 3:  The passage as quoted by BUFFON from the Memoires is as follows: 

—­“L’estomac avoit peu de diametre; il en avoit moins que le colon, car son diametre n’etoit que de quatorze pouces dans la partie la plus large; il avoit trois pieds et demi de longueur:  l’orifice superieur etoit a-peu-pres aussi eloigne du pylore que du fond du grand cul-de-sac qui se terminoit en une pointe composee de tuniques beaucoup plus epaisses que celles du reste de l’estomac; il y avoit au fond du grand cul-de-sac plusieurs feuillets epais d’une ligne, larges d’un pouce et demi, et disposes irregulierement; le reste de parois interieures etoit perce de plusieurs petits trous et par de plus grands qui correspondoient a des grains glanduleux.”—­BUFFON, Hist.  Nat., vol. xi. p. 109.]

A writer in the Quarterly Review for December 1850, says that “CAMPER and other comparative anatomists have shown that the left, or cardiac end of the stomach in the elephant is adapted, by several wide folds of lining membrane, to serve as a receiver for water;” but this is scarcely correct, for although CAMPER has accurately figured the external form of the stomach, he disposes of the question of the interior functions with the simple remark that its folds “semblent en faire une espece de division particuliere."[1] In like manner SIR EVERARD HOME, in his Lectures on Comparative Anatomy, has not only carefully described the form of the elephant’s stomach, and furnished a drawing of it even more accurate than CAMPER; but he has equally omitted to assign any purpose to so strange a formation, contenting himself with observing that the structure is a peculiarity, and that one of the remarkable folds nearest the orifice of the diaphragm appears to act as a valve, so that the portion beyond may be considered as an appendage similar to that of the hog and the peccary.[2]