 Reference Base  A letter containing the natural history of the rhinoceros |
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Parsons, J., 1743. A letter containing the natural history of the rhinoceros. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London 42 (470): 523-541, pls. 1-3
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Captive - Europe |
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History |
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Indian Rhino |
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English text from the Philosophical Transactions of 1743
Read June 9, 1743
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Sir, Although many authors have given accounts and figures of the Rhinoceros from time to time, and although there was one in England in 1685, yet how far were we from having the least notion of his form, when we came to see him in 1739. It was not difficult, even before the arrival of the latter here, to discern an uncertainty in the figures that were exhibited of that animal, because they differed so widely from each other;
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and, as there was sich a variety in them as might induce one to take them for different animals, there was no knowing where to fix. This will fully appear in viewing the collection I have the Honour to lay before you.
Albrecht Durer's figure of this creature has led several of those natural historians, that have wrote since his time, into errors, for such have always copied him: and indeed many have exceeded him in adorning their figures with scales, scallops, and other fictitious forms. Now, from the badness of his figure, I am induced to believe that great man never saw the animal, for he certainly could not have been so mistaken in the performance. However, from the strictest inquiry I was capable of making, it seems most probable, that a sketch was sent to him from Portugal, by a person who took it from a rhinoceros which was sent from the East-Indies to Emanuel King of Portugal, as a present; and that Albert improved and embellished it into the original drawing, which is in Sir Hans Sloane's Museum. The inscription, in German, written under this drawing, proves it very clearly, of which the following is a close translation: [text of Durer's drawing and woodcut, pp. 524-526]
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Many years after this, one Hendrik Hondius published in Holland an exact copy of Durer's print, counterfeiting the date and mark; but gives an inscription in Low Dutch, nearly the same as that under the original print.
Bontius [*Bontius calls this animal Abada, which probably may be the Javan name] says, he has often seen these animals in the woods and stablers abroad, and values himself for having exhibited a figure without the decorations that Albrecht Durer put upon his: and yet, instead of the hoofs which are proper to the animal, he has drawn a paw not unlike that of a dog, only something bulky.
The figure given by Chardin in his Voyages has some truth, as to the folds or plicae in the skin of the rhinoceros; and likewise as to the feet: But in other respects it is not like the animal. There is also a little truth in the figures of Camerarius: see his emblems taken from animals, but far from a throrough representation of the creature. And, in short, the other originals, as that taken from the Rhinoceros in 1685 that published by Carwitham in 1739,
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and to look back to the Roman times, those in the pavement of Praeneste and Domitian's medals, are very inaccurate, but have none of Albert Durer's decorations.
When that rhinoceros arrived here in 1739, Dr. Douglas, who let slip no opportunity of improving natural knowledge, intended reforming the history of him, and therefore went frequently to see him; and on June 24 of this year, exhibited before the Royal Society a drawing of the same rhinoceros, with a collection of figures of that creature, taken from several authors, who had wrote of him before. He mentioned also his dimensions; and, on the 28th of the same month, he produced a collection of horns, with some account of them, but proceeded no farther. Since therefore another occasion may not offer in many years, and that there is no place more proper for recording truth in natural history, than in the Transactions of this learned
society, I have the honour to entertain them, in obedience to your commands, with the following account of the male rhinoceros, that was shewed in Eagle-Street, near Red-Lyon Square, in 1739, and the drawings annexed to it, which I had drawn up at that time, and put among some curious physico-medical miscellanies I have collected and illustrated with drawings, in order one day to be published.
In this account I have had no regard to those of other authors, but have barely described him, as I have often seen him on purpose, both in the above-mentioned place, and a long time after, when he was shewed at a Booth near the London-Spaw.
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The drawings annexed to the Transactions (plate I and II) are a side, fore and back view of the animal fore-shortened [*At first I designed only two views, the fore and back, of the animal, for this Transaction; but as you justly think the account will be the more perfect for having a profil also added, I have obeyed your commands, Sir, in making that view.]; all of which attitudes I the rather chose, as they will convey to posterity a clear idea of him, and as the drawings, and two pictures (one of which is in Dr. Mead's Museum) were all profills, that I had done before. The other drawing (plate III) joined to these, are the figures of two single horns, and a double one or two sticking to the same piece of skin; the penis; the tail of an old rhinoceros, and an upper and under view of one of the feet, pretty large; which shall be all more fully mentioned in the Table of references, having omitted nothing that I thought could serve to the better illustration of this wonderful creature.
Humphry Cole, Esq. being chief of the factory at Patna in Bengal, procured this rhinoceros, when young, and sent it to England by Captain Acton in the ship Lyel, which arrived on the first of June 1739. The rhinoceros was brought to Eagle-Street, Red-Lion Square on the 15th of the same month; and it was said by those who took care of him, that from his first landing in England, his expenses amounted to one thousand pounds sterling.
He was fed here with rice, sugar and hay; of the first he eats seven pounds to about three pounds of the sugar; they were mixed together, and he eats this
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quantity every day, divided into three meals, and about three trufs of hay in a week, besides greens of different kinds, which were often brought to him, and of which he seemed fonder than of his dry victuals; and drank large quantities of water at a time, being them as I was informed by his keeper, two years old.
He appeared very peaceable in his temper; for he bore to be handled in any part of his body; but is outrageous when struck or hungry, and is pacified in either case only by giving him victuals. In his outrage he jumps about, and springs to an incredible height, driving his head against the walls of the place with great fury and quickness, notwithstanding his lumpish aspect: This I have seen several times, especially in a morning, before his rice and sugar were given to him; which induces me to believe he is quite indomitable and untractable, and must certainly run too fast for a man on foot to escape him.
As to his size, he did not exceed a young heifer in height; but was very broad and thick. His head, in proportion, is very large, having the hinder part, next his ears, extremely high, in proportion to the rest of his face, which is flat, and sinks down suddenly forward towards the middle, rising again to the horn, but in a lesser degree. The horn stands on the nose of the animal, as upon a hill. I have seen the bones of the head of one of these, in Sir Hans Sloane's Museum; and the part on which the horn is fixed, rises into a blunt cone, to answer to a cavity in the basis of the horn, which is very hard and solid, having no manner of hollow nor core, like
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those of other quadrupeds. That of this animal, being young, does not rise from its rough basis above an inch high, is black and smooth at the top, like those of the ox-kind, but rugged downwards; the determination of its growth is backwards, instead of strait up; which is apparent, as well in the different horns of old rhinoceros's, which I have seen, as in this of our present subject; for the distance of the basis to the apex of this, backward, is not within a third part so long as that before, and it has a curved direction; and, considering the proportion of this animal's size to its horn, we may justly imagine, that the creature that bore any one of those great ones that I have seen, must have been a stupendous animal in size and strength; and, indeed, it were no wonder, if such were untractable at any rate.
The sides of his under jaw are wide asunder, slanting outwards to the lower edge; and backward to the neck, the edges turn outward: from this structure his head naturally looks large.
That part that reaches from the fore part of the horn towards the upper lip, may be called the nose, being very bulky, and having a kind of circular sweep downwards towards the nostrils: On all this part he has a great number of Rugae running cross the front of it, and advancing on each side towards his eyes.
The nostrils are situated very low, in the same directyion with the Rictus Oris, and not above an inch from it. If we look at him in a fore view, the whole nose, from the top of the horn to the
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bottom of his lower lip, seems shaped like a bell, viz. small and narrow at the top, with a broad basis. His under lip is like that of an ox, but the upper more like that of a horse; using it, as that creature does, to gather the hay from the rack, or grass from the ground; with this difference that the Rhinoceros has a power of stretching it out above six inches, to a point, and doubling it round a stick, or one's finger, holding it fast; so that as to that action, it is not unlike the proboscis of an elephant.
As to the tongue of the Rhinoceros, although it is confidently reported by authors, that it is so rough as to be capable of rubbing a man's flesh from his bones; yet that of our present animal is soft, and as smooth as that of a calf; which I have often felt, having had my hand sucked several times by him. Whether it may grow more rough, as the beast grows older, we cannot say.
His eyes are dull and sleepy, and much like those of a hog in shape, and situated nearer the nose than that of any quadruped I have ever seen; which he very seldoms opens entirely.
His ears are broad and thin towards the tops, much like those of a hog; but have each anarrow round root with some rugae about it; and rises, as it were, out of a sinus surrounded with a Plica.
His neck is very short, being that part which lies between the back edge of the jaw and the Plica of the shoulder; on this part there are two distinct folds, which go quite round it, only the fore one is broken underneath, and has a hollow flap hanging from it, so deep that it would contain a man's fist
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shut, the concave side being forward. From the middle of the hinder one of these folds or plicae, arises another, which, passing backwards along the neck, is lost before it reaches that which surrounds the fore part of the body.
His shoulders are very thick and heavy, and have each another fold downward, that crosses the fore leg; and, almost meeting that of the fore part of the body, just mentioned, they both double under the belly close behind the fore leg.
His body, in general, is very thick, and juts out at the sides, like that of a cow with a calf. He has a hollow in his back, which is mostly forward, but, backwards, the line or ridge rises much higher than that of the whithers; and, forming the plica upon the loins, falls down suddenly to the tail, making an uneven line. His belly hangs low, being not far from the ground, as it sinks much in the middle.
From the foresaid highest point in his back, the Plica of the loins runs down on each side between the last ribs and the hip, and is lost before it comes to the belly; but, above the places of its being lost, another arises, and runs backward round the hind legs, a little above the joint: This I call the crural fold, which turns up behind till it meets another transverse one, which runs from the side of the tail forward, and is lost before it reaches within two inches of that of the loins.
The legs of the rhinoceros are thick and strong; those before, when he stands firm, bend back at the knee, a great way from a strait line, being very round, and somewhat taper downwards. The hinder
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legs are also very strong, bending backwards at the joint to a blunt angle, under which the limb grows smaller, and then becomes gradually thicker, as it approaches the foot; so also does that part of the fore leg. About the joint of each of his legs, there is a remarkable Plica when he
bends them in lying down, which disappears when he stands.
In some quadrupeds, the fetlock bends or yields to the weight of the animal; but in this there is no appearance of any such bending, and he seems to stand on stumps, especially when he is viewed behind. He has three hoofs on each foot forwards; but the back part is a great mass of flesh, rough like the rest of his skin, and bears upon the sole or bottom of his foot.
This part is plump and callous in the surface, yielding to pressure from the softness of the subjacent flesh. Its shape is like that of a heart, having a blunt apex before, and running backward in a broad basis. The out-line of the bottom of the hoofs are somewhat semicircular.
The tail of this animal is very inconsiderable, in proportion to his bulk, not exceeding 17 or 18 inches in length, and not very thick: It has a great roughness round it, and a kind of twist or structure towards the extremity, ending in a fatness, which gave occasion to authors to compare it to a Spatula. On the sides of this flat part, a few hairs appeared, which were black and strong, but short: The growth of these is seen in the tail of the old Rhinoceros described very well by Dr. Grew, in his Museum Regalis Societatis, which is represented Fig. 2 Plate III. "In this the dock is about half an inch
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thick, and two inches broad; of what length the whole, is uncertain, this being only part of it, though it looks as if cutt off near the buttock: It is about nine inches, black and very rough. On the two edges, and there only, grow also very black and shining hairs, a foot long, stubborn, and of the thickness of a smaller shoe-maker's thread: yet not round, as other hair, but rather flattish, like so many little pieces of whalebone." It is further to be observed, that the hairs on the left side grow out a great way up towards the root of the tail, (being shorter, as they are higher) like the fibres of a Quill; whereas, on the right side, they grow no higher than the flat part.
There is no other hair on any part of this young rhinoceros, except a very small quantity, on the posterior edge of the upper parts of the ears. I have observed a very peculiar quality in this creature, of listening to any noise or rumour in the street; for though he were eating, sleeping, or under the greatest engagements nature imposes on him, he stops everything suddenly, and lifts up his head, with great attention, till the noise is over.
The Penis of the rhinoceros is of an extraordinary shape: It is represented by Fig.3 Plate III. there is first a Theca, or Praeputium, arising from the inguinal part of the belly, nearly like that of a horse, which conceals (as that does) the body and glans, when retracted. As soon as the animal begins to extend it, the first thing that is extruded, the Theca, is a second sheath of a light flesh-colour, and pretty much in form like the flower of the Digitalis floribus purpureis; and then out of this another hollow tube,
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which is analogous to the Glans Penis of other creatures, very like the flower of the Aristolochia floribus purpureis; but of a lighter or fainter fleshcolour than the former. His keeper, who was a native of Bengal, would make him thus emit his penis when he pleased, while he lay on the ground; by rubbing his back and sides with straw; and, in its utmost state of erection, it never was extended to more than about eight or nine inches. Its termination is backward in a curved direction, so that he is a retromingent animal, and consequently retrogenetive. I have several times seen him pissing; he turns his tail to the wall, and, extending his hind legs asunder, crumps himself up, and pisses out in a full stream as far as a cow.
We need say no more of the female Rhinoceros, that came over since, but that she is exactly like this in all respects, except the sex; and, by the horn, and size, of the same age; and the Pudenda like that of a cow.
The skin of the Rhinoceros is thick and impenetrable: In running one's fingers under one of the folds, and holding it with the thumb at the top, it feels like a piece of board half an inch thick. Dr. Grew describes a piece of one of these skins tanned, which, he says, "is wonderful hard, and of that thickness, exceeding that of any other land animal he has seen." It is covered all over, more or less, with hard incrustations like so many scabs; which are but small on the ridge of the neck and back, but grow larger by degrees downwards towards the belly, and are largest on the shoulders and buttocks and continue pretty large upon the legs all
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along down; but, between the folds, the skin is as smooth and soft as silk, and easily
penetrated; of a pale flesh-colour, which does not appear to view in the folds, except when the rhinoceros extends them, but is always in view under the fore and hinder parts of the belly; but the middle is incrusted over like the rest of the skin. To call these scabbed roughnesses scales, as some have done, is to raise an idea in us of something regular; which in many authors is a great inaccuracy, and leads the reader into errors; for there is nothing formal in any of them.
As to the performance of this animal's several motions, let us consider the great wisdom of the Creator, in the contrivance that serves him for that purpose. The skin is entirely impenetrable and inflexible; if therefore it was continued all over the creature, as the skins of other animals, without any folds; he could not bend anyway, and consequently not perform any necessay action; but that suppleness in the skins of all other quadrupeds, which renders them flexible in all parts, is very well compensated in this animal by those folds; for, since it was necessary his skin should be hard for his defence, it was a noble contrivance, that the skin should be so soft and smooth underneath, that, when he bends himself anyway one part of this board-like skin should slip or shove over the other; and that these several folds should be placed in such places of his body, as might facilitate the performance of every voluntary motion he might be disposed to.
I only beg leave to add one paragraph more, wherein I shall attempt to settle a point that concerns the double horn mentioned by Martial, Namque gravem gemino cornĂ» sic extulit ursum (Martial, Epigr. lib.IV, Epigr. 82).
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And which has given many critics a great deal of trouble to alter, as believing either Martial, or his transcribers, were wrong in that sentence.
There is nowhere a greater instance of the uncertainties that mankind may be led into from conjectural reasoning, than in this very subject of the Rhinoceros's horn. And although the several critics who have handled this matter, shew abundance of ingenuity in changing Martial's reading; yet, if we can make it appear, that there was a rhinoceros with two horns in Rome, than that Pet was right; if not, Bochart has the better, who has altered it thus: Namque gravem geminum cornu sic extulit urum (Bochart, Tom.I lib.3 p.931).
The first knowledge we had in this part of the world of that animal, was of the one that was brought from Asia to the king of Portugal, mentioned before; and as those brought into England since that time, viz. that in 1685, our present subject in 1739, and the female rhinoceros in 1741, were single-horned; and as likewise the great number of horns that are to be found in the Museums of the curious, brought from time to time from the East Indies, are also single; we may venture to assert, that all those from Asia have really but one horn upon the nose: And this is confirmed by many gentleman, who had seen those creatures in Persia, and other parts of the East. From thence it is easy to conclude, that this was the reason the single horn was imagined
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the standard of nature for that animal, and that therefore Martial ought rather to say, that two bears, or (according to Bochart) two wild bulls, were tossed by the strong horn of the rhinoceros; than that a single bear
was thrown up by his double horn.
On the other hand, we are sure, that the Romans had always a very great commerce with the Africans, and had many cargoes of wild beasts from that quarter of the world. It is not therefore likely, that they might more convenientkly have obtained the several rhinoceros's that were shewed in that city, from Africa than Asia; since the passage to Italy from the former is but a short one, cross the Mediterrean sea; and that the countries that produce those animals in the latter, are so very remote from Italy? For we find that the Greeks had no knowledge of this beast in the time of Aristotle, nor since, that we know of; whereas the Romans, according to the accounts given, have had six; one shewed by pompey the Great, one by Augustus, two by Domitian, one by Antoninus Pius and the last by Heliogabalus.
Now we do not want sufficient proof to shew, that there is a species of those animals in Africa, having two horns on the nose. Peter Kolbe, a Dutchman, in his Voyage to the Cape of Good Hope, says, there is one on the summit of the nose, like the others, but having a smaller one close behind it. There are also two horns in Sir Hans Sloane's Museum, sticking to the same individual integuments, not much more than an inch from each other; which is an undeniable proof of the existence of this species; see the Plate III Fig. 8. And in [539]
fine, the brass medal of Domitian, which you, Sir, were so kind to shew me, has, on one side,
the figure of a Rhinoceros with two horns (*) upon the nose, very plain. From all which I cannot but inclined to believe, that this medal was struck from one of those of Africa, and that Martial had no more notion of a Rhinoceros with one horn, than Bochart had of one with two.
[* Pausanias's testimony is of great force here, having seen them himself in Rome, brough thither from Ethiopia, with a double horn on the nose. His words are [quoted in Greek]. Vidi etiam Tauros Aethiopicos, quos ex re ipsa Rhinoceros nominant, quod illi e nare extrema cornu prominet; et paulo superius alterum, non sane magnum, in capite nullum prorsus habent. Pausan. Lib.IX. c.21.]
There is one thing remarkable of Albert Durer: It is certain, from his print of this animal, that he, or somebody else, concerned in his figure and, being puzzled where to place the other, at last put it upon the neck; by which it further seems probable that Albert never saw the beast (+) but was led by the Poet's epigram to make that addition to the drawing sent to him from Portugal.
[+ Petrus Maffejus makes this certain: He says, that the Rhinoceros that arrived in Portugal in 1513 was sent by the King to the Pope, and that the ship which had him on board was cast away, and the animal drowned on the coast of Genoa.]
Augustini also, in his Dialogue of Medals, has a figure of the Rhinoceros, with two horns on the nose. So hath likewise the figure in the Praenestan
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pavement, made by order of Sylla, the Dictator, on which he certainly designed to represent several animals and other remarkable things, proper to Africa.
Explanation of the Plates of the Rhinoceros
Plate I. A side view of the Rhinoceros
Plate II
Fig.1 A fore view of the Rhinoceros, fore-shortened.
Fig.2 A back view of the same, fore-shortened.
Plate III
Fig.1 Two views of one of the feet. a. the upper part of the foot. b. the sole of the foot.
Fig.2 The tail of an old Rhinoceros, in the Museum of the Riyal Society.
Fig.3 The penis in an erected state. a. The first Theca or Praeputium, of a dark colour. b. The second Theca, being flesh-coloured. c. The tubular Glans Penis.
Fig.4 A horn of a rhinoceros, said to be six years old, being about 10 inches long.
Fig. 5 The bottom or concave basis of the same, to shew the cavity is very superficial.
Fig. 6 A beautiful horn in Dr. Mead’s Museum, being about 37 inches long.
Fig. 7 The horn of a rhinoceros, in the Museum of Sir Hans Sloane, which (as those of Oxen are sometimes liable to distortions in their growth) differs from the common form; it is 32 inches long.
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Fig. 8 The double horn mentioned above, belonging to Sir Hans Sloane: Whether they crossed each other on the animal is uncertain. It is most likely they did not, but that by drying they were crossed by the corrugation of the skin that joins them together. However, I have drawn them as they appeared to me. The strait horn is 25 inches long, the curved one somewhat shorter, and the two diameters of the bases 13 inches.
Fig. 9 The concave bottoms of the above double horns, as they adhere to the same piece of skin.
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