Dr. J. Murie on the Anatomy of the Giraffe. 193 



was more singed throughout than that of the mother ; but the 

 legs and especially the hoofs were very severely injured ; of the 

 latter, the right hind one was quite loose, from the intense 

 heat. The tongue did not protrude ; but the eyes were blood- 

 shot and stai'ing. 



There was less swelling of the abdominal cavity than in the 

 older animal; and the viscera of the thorax and abdomen, 

 though gorged, contained but a moderate quantity of effused 

 blood. The submucous tissue around the glottis and trachea 

 did not exhibit such an amount of infiltration. In the first 

 and fom'th stomachs, milk, partly curdled, existed in plenty. 



The sum of the morbid appearances bore testimony to the 

 fact that death in each case had resulted from asphyxia, 

 hastened doubtless by the shock and pain endured from the 

 burning straw beneath them. 



6. Conclusions, 



The gist of the present paper, then, when put in the form 

 of propositions, resolves itself somewhat as follows : — 



1. Agreement with those who look upon the posterior 

 pair of bony pedicels on the summit of the girafie-skull as 

 extraneous ossific centres adherent primarily in the manner of 

 epiphyses. 



2. Concurrence in testimony of the naso-frontal eminence 

 being also epiphysial, developed after the same fashion, and 

 therefore identical in nature with the posterior bony eleva- 

 tions. 



3. If the term horn holds good, then the giraffe is tricorned. 

 But zoologists are divided in their opinions respecting the 

 precise homology of the said appendages in relation to other 

 ruminants. De Blainville * regarded them as equivalent to the 

 deer's pedicels ; and I infer from what Is. Geoffrey Saint- 

 Hilairef says, that he looked Upon them as representatives of 

 the horn-cores in the Bovidge. Dr. Gray's definition! draws 

 them towards the latter ; yet he justly appreciates difference. 

 Withal, is it not possible that his fourfold separation of 

 ^''coleocera," " komecera," " dermocera," and " epochocera," 

 distinguishing respectively the Bovidae, Antilocapridas, Giraf- 

 fid^e, and Cervid^e, may be but textural shades of kind of but 

 one organic homologue ? Pedicel, core, and osseous epiphysis 

 would then stand in unison, and antler and horn (bony, corneous, 

 or hairy) present identity. In all ruminants, then, whether less 

 or more developed, the osseous base necessarily would be 



* Comptes Rendus de I'lnstitut, 1837. t Ibid. p. 55. 



X Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. 1866, vol. xviii. p. 326. 



Ann. & Mag. N. Hist. Ser. 4. Vol.'ix. 14 



