wth and development;--and he adopts as
evidence of the period at which growth ceases, the final consolidation
of the bones with their _epiphyses_; which in the young consist of
cartilages; but in the adult become uniformly osseous and solid. So long
as the epiphyses are distinct from the bones, the growth of the animal
is proceeding, but it ceases so soon as the consolidation is complete.
In man, according to FLEURENS, this consummation takes place at 20 years
of age, in the horse at 5, in the dog at 2; so that conformably to this
theory the respective normal age for each would be 100 years for man, 25
for the horse, and 10 for a dog. As a datum for his conclusion, FLEURENS
cites the instance of one young elephant in which, at 26 years old, the
epiphyses were still distinct, whereas in another, which died at 31,
they were firm and adherent. Hence he draws the inference that the
period of completed solidification is thirty years, and consequently
that the normal age of the elephant is _one hundred and fifty_.[3]

[Footnote 1: ARISTOTELES _de Anim. l. viii._ c. 9.]

[Footnote 2: _Menag. de Mus. Nat._ p. 107.]

[Footnote 3: FLEURENS, _De la Longevite Humaine_, pp. 82, 89.]

Amongst the Singhalese the ancient fable of the elephant attaining to
the age of two or three hundred years still prevails; but the Europeans,
and those in immediate charge of tame ones, entertain the opinion that
the duration of life for about _seventy_ years is common both to man and
the elephant; and that before the arrival of the latter period, symptoms
of debility and decay ordinarily begin to manifest themselves. Still
instances are not wanting in Ceylon of trained decoys that have lived
for more than double the reputed period in actual servitude. One
employed by Mr. Cripps in the Seven Korles was represented by the
Cooroowe people to have served the king of Kandy in the same capacity
sixty years before; and amongst the papers left by Colonel Robertson
(son to the historian of "Charles V."), who held a command in Ceylon in
1799, shortly after the capture of the island by the British, I have
found a memorandum showing that a decoy was then attached to the
elephant establishment at Matura, which the records proved to have
served under the Dutch during the entire period of their occupation
(extending to upwards of one hundred and forty years); and it was said
to have been found in the stables by the Dutch on the expulsion of the
Portugese in 1656.