524 



NATURE 



[October i, 1891 



nating current electromotors were still comparatively 

 untried. 



Tests of a secondary generator were next undertaken 

 in 1885 by Prof. Galileo Ferraris, of Turin, who found 

 the efficiency at full load to be no less than 97 per cent.,— 

 a value even higher than that previously published. This 

 investigation is the more memorable, in that it led Prof. 

 Ferraris to take up the mathematical and experimental 

 investigation of alternating currents, resulting in the dis- 

 covery and construction of the self starting alternate 

 current motor in 1885, and to extensions of considerable 

 practical importance in our knowledge of the action of 

 secondary generators, now called trmtsfortners. And so 

 one of the chief lions this year at the Frankfort Exhibi- 

 tion was Prof. Ferraris. W. E. A. 

 {To be continue d.^ 



THE GIRAFFE AND ITS ALLIES. 



ALTHOUGH coming within that well-defined group 

 of ruminants known as the Pecora, the Giraffe 

 (the sole existing representative of the genus Giraffd) 

 stands markedly alone among the mammals of the 

 present epoch ; although, on the whole, its nearest 

 living relations appear to be the deer {Cervidce). More- 

 over, not only is the giraffe now isolated from all other 

 ruminants in respect of its structure, but it is also ex- 

 clusively confined to that part of the African continent 

 which constitutes the Ethiopian region of distributionists. 

 When, however, we turn to the records of past epochs of 

 the earth's history, w e find that both the structural and 

 distributional isolation of the giraffe are but features of 

 the present condition of things. Thus, in regard to its 

 distribution, we find that in the Pliocene epoch giraffes 

 were abundant in Greece, Persia, India, and China ; and 

 we may therefore fairly assume that they were once 

 spread over the greater part of the Palaearctic and 

 Oriental regions. Then, again, with regard to their 

 allies, the researches of palaeontologists have been gradu- 

 ally bringing to light remains of several large extinct 

 ruminants from various regions, which are more or less 

 nearly related to the giraffe, but whose affinities appear 

 to be so complex and so difficult to decipher, that not 

 only do they remove the stigma of isolation from that 

 animal, but even render it well-nigh impossible to give a 

 definition of the group of more or less giraffe-like 

 animals, by which it may be distinguished on the one 

 hand from the deer (Cervidce), and on the other from the 

 antelopes {Bovidce). Since an interesting account of a 

 new extinct Giraffoid from the Pliocene deposits of 

 Maragha in Persia has been recently given by Messrs. 

 Rodler and Weithofer in the Denkschriften of the Vienna 

 Academy, the present time is a suitable one to offer a 

 brief resume of the present state of our knowledge of this 

 group of animals, and the different views which have been 

 entertained as to the affinities of some of its members. 



Among the chief structural peculiarities of the giraffe, 

 the most noticeable is its great height, which is mainly 

 produced by the excessive length of the neck and limbs. 

 The fore-limbs are, moreover, longer than the hind ones, 

 as is well shown by the circumstance that the radius, or 

 main bone of the fore-leg, is longer than the tibia in the 

 hind-leg ; whereas, in other living ruminants the reverse 

 condition obtains. The skull is more like that of the 

 deer than of any other existing ruminants, this being shown 

 by its general contour, and also by the presence of the 

 large unossified space below the eye, which completely 

 separates the lachrymal from the nasal bone ; a con- 

 dition but very rarely met with in the Bovidce, although 

 found in the skull of the water-buck. Then, again, the 

 skull resembles that of the deer in the great elongation 

 of the portion situated behind the eyes, i.e. the parietal 

 region. The bony processes arising from the skull 



NO. 1 144, VOL. 44") 



between the occiput and the eyes, and clothed in the 

 living animal with skin, are not strictly comparable 

 either with the antlers of the deer or the horn cores 

 of the antelopes ; in the young condition they are 

 separate from the bones of the skull, with which, 

 however, they unite as age advances. The whole of the 

 frontal and nasal region is much swollen and inflated by 

 the development of air-cells between the inner and outer 

 layers of bone ; and at the junction of the frontal and 

 nasal bones there is a lar^e oval hillock-like protuberance 

 in the middle line, which is sometimes termed a third 

 horn. This excessive inflation of the region of the face 

 makes the appearance of this part of the skull very 

 different from that of the deer, in which it is much 

 flattened. The grinding or molar teeth of the giraffe are 

 remarkable for the peculiar roughness of their external 

 coating of enamel, and also for their broad and low 

 crowns, which in the upper jaw lack the internal addi- 

 tional column occuring in those of most deer and many 

 antelopes. These teeth are, however, more like those of 

 the deer than those of other ruminants, although they 

 can be distinguished at a glance from all others except 

 the larger ones of the under-mentioned fossil forms. 



Since a good deal depends on the similarity between 

 the structure of the molar teeth of the giraffe and those 

 of the extinct ruminants in question, it may be well to 

 observe that the characters of the molar teeth among all 

 , the ruminants are of great importance in classification. 

 Thus, these teeth in all the deer, although varying to a 

 certain extent in the relative height of their crowns, pre- 

 sent the same general structure, those of the upper jaw 

 being comparatively short and broad, with a large 

 internal additional column. Then, again, in the Bovidce 

 we may notice that each of the several groups into which 

 the antelopes are divided, as well as the goats and sheep 

 and the oxen, are severally distinguished by the cha- 

 racters of their molar teeth, and that, although the teeth 

 of one group may approximate more or less closely to 

 that of another, we do not find any instances where one 

 member of a group possesses teeth of a totally different 

 type from those of the other representatives of the same 

 group. These facts strongly indicate that, when we meet 

 with fossil ruminants having molar teeth of the very 

 peculiar type met with in the giraffe, we shall be justified 

 in considering that there must be a certain amount of 

 relationship between the owners of such teeth. 



Another marked peculiarity of the giraffe is that the 

 humerus has a double groove for the biceps muscle, 

 instead of the single one found in ordinary ruminants. In 

 regard to its soft parts, the giraffe resembles the deer in 

 the usual absence of the gall-bladder, although its repro- 

 ductive organs are constructed more on the Bovine type. 



With these preliminary remarks on some of the struc- 

 tural peculiarities of the giraffe, we may proceed to the 

 consideration of its fossil allies. The genus which probably 

 comes nearest to the giraffe is the imperfectly known 

 Vishnutherium, founded upon part of a lower jaw from 

 the Pliocene of Burma, but to which have been referred 

 some upper molars and bones from the corresponding 

 beds of the Punjab. This animal must have been con- 

 siderably larger than the giraffe, and the upper molars 

 are remarkable for the great flatness of the outer surfaces 

 of their external columns, in which respect they come 

 nearer to the corresponding teeth of the elk than do those 

 of any other members of the group. The posterior 

 cannon-bone, or metatarsus, assigned to this genus, 

 although relatively much shorter than that of the giraffe, 

 is more elongated and giraffe-like than the corresponding 

 bone of any other fossil genus in which this part of the 

 skeleton has been described. The cervical vertebrze are 

 also more elongated and giraffe-like than those of any 

 of the under-mentioned genera. It will of course be im- 

 material if these bones prove to belong to a genus' 

 distinct from Vishnutherium; their interest lying in the 



