The definitive dissection of an elephant was carried out not in Africa or in India but in Dublin, writes Mary Mulvihill. What's more, it was published in 1682 and remained the classic text for nearly 300 years. Indeed, it is so accurate and thorough that zoologists still refer to it.
This unusual study was the work of a dashing young Irish physician called Allen Mullen (or Molines), and it began by accident. A fire in Essex Street in 1681 killed an elephant that had been on display, and Mullen jumped at the opportunity.
The next night he dissected the unfortunate animal, working by candlelight and assisted by butchers. Despite the smell, a crowd gathered to fight for souvenirs and had to be controlled by musketeers.
The following year, Mullen's report was published in London. The first modern description of the elephant's anatomy, it replaced one written in the 2nd century by the Greek physician Galen.
Significantly, Mullen discovered that, unlike other land mammals, the elephant has no pleural cavity, the fluid-filled space between the lungs and chest walls. In recent years, zoologists have suggested that this is because the elephant evolved from an aquatic mammal, such as the African dugong, or sea cow.
Mullen's account is wonderfully detailed, honest and vivid. Everything is noted, measured and weighed and compared with what is found in humans, dogs or horses. But, he writes: "I could not find the bone in the heart which Galen says he found."
Mullen estimates the elephant's volume of blood, measures the internal organs and all 22.8 metres of gut, estimates that elephants produce 93 litres of sweat a day, dismisses the trunk as "merely a nose prolonged" and analyses the teeth and tusks - but he draws the line at tasting the dark-green bilious secretions he finds.
He also puzzles over how elephants can shoot out their trunks so rapidly and speculates about why they are scared of mice.
In a nice self-deprecating moment, he admits to being baffled by the testes, which are the wrong shape and size, then realises he is looking at the prostate. Later, two large and spongy pear-shaped organs baffle him before he realises these are the testes.
Born in Ballyculter, Co Down, in 1654, Mullen had studied medicine at Trinity College in Dublin. His friends included noted scientists of the day, and he helped found the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland and the short-lived Dublin Philosophical Society, Ireland's first scientific society. He died in 1690, during a fortune-hunting trip to Barbados, some say of a fever, others say of drink.
Not all Mullen's experiments would win approval today. He injected mercury into condemned men to investigate its effects on their lungs and drained the blood from animals to measure its volume.
The wonderful Marsh's Library in Dublin has a copy of his classic elephant pamphlet, which researchers can read by arrangement with the librarian.