272                      A TREATISE ON ELEPHANTS.

mucous membrane of the bile ducts with such tenacity as to resist
the contraction of the bile ducts to expel them with the bile into the
intestinal canal. The colour varies a great deal, depending to a
great extent on the amount of bile they contain ; if their digestive
system be full of bile, the colour is a dark brown or greenish black ;
if empty. a dark yellowish brown.

Cobbold gives the length, when unrolled, from ½ to ⅝ inch and
the breadth from ⅓ to ½ inch. The habitat of flukes is in the bile
ducts of the liver, which they invade from the opening through
which the bile flows into the gut, situated a short way from the
stomach, and it is to their presence that the disease known as rot
owes its existence. In Burma flukes may occasionally be met with
in mules and ponies, but more frequently in oxen, buffaloes and
elephants. Hawkes, a careful observer, who knew much about the
diseases of elephants, constantly found after death these parasites
in the bile ducts. This has frequently been my experience. While
he was stationed at Secunderabad a high mortality occurred amongst
the elephants under his charge. He attended the post-mortem
examinations, and flukes were found in greater or less numbers in
every case ; he also observed that other parasites were met with.
A long account of an outbreak of rot which occurred in 1867
amongst the Commissariat elephants stationed at Rangoon is given
in a letter to the " Rangoon Times," dated the 16th July 1867, and
signed " R. B." It appears that in the short space of fifteen days
seven elephants died, and it was noticed that the mortality com-
menced as the severity of the south-west monsoon increased. The
outbreak was such a remarkable one that I give some extracts from
the letter :—

" *    *    *    The first sign I noticed of the disease was the
number of elephants which resorted to eating mud, the natural remedy
provided by the animal's own instinct for the expulsion of intestinal
worms. Perhaps the animal resorts to mud not only as a remedy
for worms, but also when any excess of irritation in the bowels or
stomach is felt ; however, be that as it may, in all the cases which
came under my notice, I am confident the cause of death was from
the presence of cystic and larval forms of the entozoa, which were
found in abundance in the liver, lungs, and intestines of the animal.

" In the lower bowels or alimentary canal the common worms
were found in great numbers, termed " chotee " or " mussodee "
in Dr. Gilchrist's Treatise (a species of ascarides ?), and it was not
until the liver and lungs had incisions made in them that the other
kind was discovered.

" The inside of the liver and cavities of the lungs were, I may
say without exaggeration, positively alive with this species of