16 
said that it was characteristic of certain animal families that 
when they grew anything in the nature of bony horns they came 
to an end ; horns were eccentricities which did not persist. As 
in modern times, so in the long history of evolution, it was 
mediocrity that governed the world; mediocre animals of a 
species formed the basis of the next advance. 
Attention was next drawn to the tapir (a skeleton of which 
was shown), an animal found nowadays only in South America 
and the Malay Peninsula; in former times tapirs existed all over 
the world and were survivors of one of the stages through which 
the primeval quadruped went in the course of its development 
into the horse. 
The hipparion was also briefly alluded to ; in appearance not 
unlike our pony, it was extensively spread all over the world. In 
Spain there were miles of beds composed of its bones, and 
numerous whole skeletons of it had been dug up in Greece. 
Hipparions must have roamed over prehistoric Europe, Asia, and 
North America in countless numbers. In South America, which 
was isolated from the rest of the world during part of the Tertiary | 
Epoch, whilst North America, Asia, and Europe were all 
connected, animals were found shaped like the horse which had 
been evolved quite independently from different animals. The 
most reasonable explanation was that such changes are mainly 
produced by environment, so that like outside conditions produce 
like results, so far as animal structure was concerned. 
In answer to a question from Mr. Pankhurst, the President, 
as to how these varying forms of animals came to be exterminated, 
Dr. Woodward said the question was a difficult one to solve. In 
South America whole herds of animals at the present day were 
killed by a dry season or an extreme winter, and the probability 
was that there were coincidences of unfavourable conditions over 
a considerable area, which caused the destruction of these now 
extinct animals. It had been noticed how in times of distress 
animals would congregate into one spot to die, and the piles of 
bones massed in particular places hinted that this had happened 
in long forgotten ages, long before man came on earth. 
Obnoxious insects had also a good deal to do with killing off 
animals in the regions they infested. 
—— 
oh i. 
