6 4 Royal Institution . — 



Ruminantia, with the other artiodactyle (even-toed) Ujis;iUatn ; above 

 all, the iiuiiiljer of lost links in tlmt interesting ehiiin which have 

 now heen restored from the rnins of former habitahle surfaces of the 

 earth — all these and other similar facts have concurred in estnhlishing 

 different views of the nature and value of the Huminant order from 

 those entertained by Cnvier, and the majority of systematic naturali-sts 

 up to 1 M^O. Thus instead of viewing: the Annplntlwrinm as o pachy- 

 derm, the speaker, having regard to the small size of its upper inci- 

 sors and canines, to the retention of the individuality of its two chief 

 metacarpal and metatarsal bones, and to the non-development of horns 

 at any period of life, would regard it rather as resembling an over- 

 grown embryo-ruminant — of a runiuiant in which growtli had pro- 

 ceeded with arrest of develof)mcnt. The ordinal characters of the 

 Anoplotherium are those of the Ai-tiodactifa. On the other hand, 

 instead of viewing the Horse as being next of kin to the Camel, or as 

 making the transition from the Pachyderms to the Huminants, the 

 speaker had heen led, by considerations of its third trochanter, its 

 astragalus, its simple stomach and enormous sacculated ctecum, the 

 palaeotherian type of the grinding surface of the molars, and the 

 excessive number of the dorsn-lumbar vertebrre, to the conviction of 

 the essential affinities of the EquidcB with other pcrissodactyles (odd- 

 toed hoofed beasts). ■ - . /. 

 The primitive types of both odd-toed and even-toed TTngulates opcur 

 in the eocene tertiary- deposits: the earliest forms of the rumiriant 

 modification of the ArtiodaDtyla appear in the miocene strata. The 

 fossil remains of the aboriginal cattle of Britain have been found in 

 the newer pliocene strata, in drift-gravels, in brick-earth deposits, 

 and in bone-caves. Two of these ancient cattle {liovidce) were of 

 gigantic size, with immense horns ; one was a true Bison {Bison pris- 

 cus), the other a true Ox (Bos primif/enius) ; contemporary with these 

 were a smaller species of short-horned Ox {Boa longifrons), find a Buf- 

 falo, aj)j)arently identical in species with the Arctic Musk-buffalo 

 (Butjatiis, or Ovibos, moschfttys). 



The small Ox {Bos loncjifrons) is that which the aboriginal natives 

 of Britain would be most likely to succeed in taming. They possessed 

 domesticated cattle (jjecora) when Cajsar invaded Britain. The cattle 

 of the mountain fastnesses to which the Celtic population retreated 

 before the Komans, viz. the Welsh " runt " and Highland " kyloe," 

 most resemble in size and cranial characters the pleistocene Bos lon- 

 gifrons. Prof. Owen therefore regards the Bos lonyifrons, and not 

 the gigantic Bos primif/enius, as the source of part of our domestic 

 cattle. 



From the analogy of colonists of the present day he proceeded to 

 argue that the Romans would import their own tamed cattle to their 

 colonial scttlcm.ents in Britain. The domesticated cattle of the Bo- 

 mans, Greeks, and Egyptians bore the nearest affinity to the Brahminy 

 variety of cattle in India. As the domestic cattle imported by the 

 Spaniards into South America have, in many localities, reverted to a 

 wild state, so the speaker believed that the half-wild races of white 

 cattle in Chillingham Park, and a few other preserves in Britain, were 

 descended from introduced domesticated cattle. The size of the dew- 



