242 MR. R. OWEN ON THE ANATOMY 
the centre of the canal. Above these the inner membrane of the uterus sends off several 
thicker processes similarly arranged. 
Each cornu of the uterus is about eight inches in length, and became bent in a spiral 
form when distended with fluid: four longitudinal rows of short flattened processes pro- 
ject from the inner surface, showing that the fetus is developed in the Giraffe by means 
of a cotyledonous subdivided placenta, as in other Horned Ruminants, and not, as in 
the Camel, by a uniform vascular villosity of the chorion. 
Concluding Remarks. 
The nature and zoological affinities of the Giraffe, so far as they are illustrated by its 
internal structure, may be expressed by terming it simply ‘‘a modified Deer’’. It is in fact 
a Deer in all the essential parts of its organization: but the structure by which so large a 
Ruminant is enabled to subsist in the tropical regions of Africa, by browsing on the tops 
of trees, disqualifies it for wielding antlers of sufficient strength and size to serve as 
weapons of offence ; and were it not that some species of Cervus, as C. rufus, have at all 
periods of life short and simple horns, it might be allowable to speculate on the influ- 
ence which was due to the mechanical obstacles to the flow of blood up the singularly 
long and slender carotids in retarding in the Giraffe the development of the antlers 
beyond the point at which they characterize the pricket age of the Deer. This at 
least is certain, that the Elk, which amongst the Ruminants with hair-clad antlers 
presents the opposite extreme to the Giraffe in the magnitude of those appendages, has 
also the shortest neck. Why the diminutive antlers of the Giraffe should never lose 
their hairy and vascular integument, and why they are not shed, like those of the Deer- 
tribe, simultaneously with the shedding of the hair from the rest of the body, which takes 
place annually in the Giraffe as in the Deer, is not so obvious. We well know, how- 
ever, the remarkable change of disposition which accompanies the full development of 
his formidable antlers in the full-grown Buck; and some physiologists have conjectured 
that both the disposition and power to injure the feebler individuals of his own race are 
intentionally suppressed by the annual shedding of the horns at a period when the young 
would be most liable to be injured by them. Now as the horns of the Giraffe never 
acquire the requisite development to serve as weapons of deadly attack, his disposition 
undergoes no change, and their temporary removal is not needed on that account. 
The integument originally developed with the horns is similar in structure to the ordi- 
nary skin, like that which invests the frontal processes or peduncles of the horns of 
the muntjak (Cervus Muntjak), and differs from the temporary integument or velvet of 
deciduous antlers. 
Zoologists, guided by external characters only, have differed in their views of the 
natural position of the Giraffe in the Ruminant series: Illiger places it in the Cameline 
group, and Mr. Swainson between the Musk Deer and the Camels. The long neck, linear 
nostrils, and the absence of spurious hoofs are however the only outward indications of 
