NATURE 



[l^EBRUARV 2, 1893 



Marsh described a small Artiodactyle with a pair of small 

 conical horn-cores upon the parietal bones, which he 

 named Protoceras celer^ expressing the opinion that it re- 

 presented a new family. Upon the supposition that this 

 type might also be a female of the same species to which 

 the heavily-horned type belonged, the second skull was 

 taken to the Yale Museum, and carefully compared point 

 Ijy point. It proved to be identical in every respect. In 

 this way the discovery was made that in Protoceras, zs in 

 so many other Artiodactyles, the male and female skulls 

 differed widely from each other in their cranial armature. 

 The male was as described above ; the female exhibits 

 merely a pair of very small conical processes upon the 

 parietals, with perfectly smooth frontals, and maxillaries 

 either of the normal type or with smaller protuberances 

 than in the male. 



The dentition at first suggests relationship to Tragulus 

 and Hyomoschus. The premaxillaries are edentulous as 

 in the ruminants ; but in the lower jaw there are four 

 small teeth shaped liked incisors, the outermost of which 

 ^represents the canine. The upper canines are large, 



Fig. 3.— Front view of Skull. 



pointed, and recurved. The molar teeth are of the short- 

 crowned, or brachyodont type, with a distinctly crescentic 

 pattern. 



The structure of the feet also suggests the Tragulines, 

 in the fact that the fore-foot has four well developed toes, 

 while the hind-foot has two toes with the lateral pair 

 very much reduced. As in the Tragulidcs, the fore-foot 

 and probably the fore limb was very much shorter than 

 the hind foot and limb. The hind foot, moreover, shows 

 a tendency to co-ossification both in the metatarsals and in 

 the union of the navicular and cuneiform with the cuboid. 

 In many details, however, the feet present marked differ- 

 ences from the older and more recent Tragulines. The 

 oldest of the Tragulines, moreover, is Leptomeryx, a con- 

 temporary of Pr^i/^^^raj, which has an entirely different 

 skull and foot structure. 



Taking all these facts together, we are led to support 

 Prof. Marsh's conjecture, based upon the compara- 

 tively hornless female skull, that this Artiodactyle repre- 

 sents a new family, the ProtoceratidcB. We know abso- 

 lutely nothing either of the ancestors or successors of 

 this type ; and this is another illustration of the fact 

 which is constantly being impressed upon us, that our 

 fossil-bearing strata still contain a great number of forms 

 which are at present wholly unknown and unsuspected. 

 Henry F. Osborn. 



HENRY F. BLANFORD, F.R.S. 

 TV/TR. H. F. BLANFORD, whose death was noticed in 

 -^*-^ last week's Nature, was born in Bouverie Street, 

 Whitefriars, in the City of London, in 1834. He was one 

 of the students who entered the Royal School of Mines 



NO. I 2 14, VOL. 47] 



at its commencement in 1851, and after distinguishing 

 himself by taking the first Duke of Cornwall's Scholar- 

 ship, he studied for a year at Freiberg in Saxony. In 

 1855 he and his brother, Mr. W. T. Blanford, received 

 appointments on the Geological Survey of India, and they 

 landed in Calcutta at the end of September in that year, 

 Mr. H. F. Blanford remained on the Geological Survey 

 till 1862, when he resigned, his health having suffered 

 from the exposure incidental to geological surveying in 

 India. His most important work whilst engaged on the 

 Survey was the examination of the cretaceous beds of 

 the neighbourhood of Trichinopoly, his classification of 

 which, founded to a considerable extent on palaeonto- 

 logical data, has been thoroughly confirmed by Dr. F. 

 Stoliczka's well-known description of the fauna. Mr. 

 Blanford had previously, during his first season's work 

 in India, by separating the Talchir strata, with their re- 

 markable boulder bed, from the true coal-bearing, or 

 Damuda rocks, taken the first step in what for so long 

 was one of the most difficult tasks set before the Indian 

 Geological Survey — the stratigraphical arrangement of 

 the complex of beds subsequently known as the 

 Gondwana system. 



On leaving the Geological Survey he was offered a 

 post in the Bengal Educational Department, and from 

 1862 to 1874 he was one of the professors of the Presi- 

 dency College, Calcutta. Soon afte^r 1862 he began to 

 take a keen interest in meteorological questions, and 

 after being for some time a member of a meteorological 

 committee nominated by the government, he was, in April 

 1867, appointed Meteorological Reporter to the Govern- 

 ment of Bengal, and placed in charge of an office estab- 

 lished with a twofold purpose, to give storm warnings for 

 the protection of shipping and to collect and record 

 systematic meteorological observations throughout the 

 Bengal presidency. Within a short time one most im- 

 portant result was obtained ; the meteorological condi- 

 tions under which cyclones originated in the Bay of 

 Bengal were definitely ascertained, and it became prac- 

 ticable to say when a storm was a probable event, and 

 in what part of the Bay it might be expected, and when 

 a cyclone was impossible, although high winds might 

 prevail. Meantime the various observatories of the 

 country were being brought into order, and the observa- 

 tions rendered systematic. 



In 1874 the Government of India became convinced of 

 the necessity for placing all the meteorological observa- 

 tories in India in communication with a central office, and 

 Mr. Blanford was finally transferred from the educational 

 staff of Bengal and made chief of the new meteorological 

 department, with the official designation of Meteorological 

 Reporter to the Government of India. The new post in- 

 volved much travelling to visit out-stations, in order to 

 ensure the exact comparison of barometers and other 

 instruments. The organisation of the new department, 

 however, progressed rapidly, and in a few years a series 

 of papers from Mr. Blanford's pen on rainfall, wind direc- 

 tions, and other meteorological phenomena gave evidence 

 to all interested in the science that valuable additions to 

 it were being made by the Indian observations. The 

 peculiar geographical conditions of India render its 

 meteorology unusually simple, and of great scientific and 

 practical importance. An admirable illustration, both of 

 the peculiarity of Indian meteorology and of the practical 

 results yielded by accurate observations, is afforded by 

 the fact that no sooner was the whole system in working 

 order, than it was found practicable some time before the 

 commencement of the monsoon season, and of the rain- 

 fall, upon which in many provinces plenty or scarcity of 

 food depends, to prepare a forecast of the approaching 

 season, and to warn the Government of a possible 

 deficiency of rain in particular parts of the country. The 

 forecasts prepared have been found remarkably accurate. 



Mr. Blanford retired from the Indian Service in 1888, 



