A controversy has been raging about the White Elephant all
-the week. Professor Flower, one of the best living authorities, says the pink patches on him are patches of flesh-colour which show through, owing to the absence of colouring pigment in the -epidermis. That seems to be tree, for that is undoubtedly the -explanation of the pink patches observable in pigs ; and. an -elephant is only a pig aggrandised, with the tusks enlarged and the snout greatly lengthened. Mr. Balmanno Squire, on the other hand, rays the patches are due to a skin disease, lenko- derma, and that he can cure it,—a statement which Mr. Bar- num's agents regard as almost incendiary. One wonders, if Mr. Squire is right, and does cure the beast, whether an action for damages will lie against him for a cure which impairs profits. Mr. John Guy Laverick, however, contributes to the Times -on Friday the most valuable of the letters. He is one of -those inconvenient Englishmen who have been in the most unlikely places, and he says that in Songaria, a region in the north-west of the Chinese Empire, he has seen the real white elephant, called locally the " moonskin." It is of a perfectly
• light tint all over, "like one of Huntley and Palmer's biscuits," and the breed is greatly valued for its hardihood and longevity. He even offers to put Mr. Barnum in the way of procuring one , of those animals, and. we presume, therefore, an agent, with a map, a tooth-brush, and unlimited credit, started for Songaria yesterday. The total result appears to be that cream-coloured elephants do exist, that most " white" elephants are pink, and that this particular elephant, "Toung," has only pink patches, like a pig. He is, consequently, not a superior article, and the Telegraph reporter who sang that dithyramb about him should have waited for the Songarian.
Previous page
