1889.] ON SCLERORHYNCHUS ATAVUS. 419 
as well as to fray off at the sides. Its surface also shows many 
irregular transverse linear depressions. The apex is broad, obtuse, 
and fissured, and has been subjected to a certain amount of attrition. 
A fissure extending almost to the base separates a distinct columnar 
piece from the anterior and left corner of the principal mass. 
Although its general structure is obviously that of true horn, it 
appears to bear the same relation to those in front of it that a nail 
growing from a diseased or injured matrix does to a normal healthy 
nail. 
“As the horn of the Rhinoceros is only a greatly modified portion 
of the animal’s skin, specialized for its particular function by the 
iminense development of the papillze of the derm and the exaggerated 
growth of the epidermic covering, it is not surprising that under 
some abnormal circumstances, perhaps some local irritation of the 
skin, a horn should be developed on some other partof the surface from 
that on which they are usually found. Such an occurrence, however, 
appears to be rare, and I cannot recall one on record—unless the 
well-known figure by Albrecht Diirer, copied in so many of the old 
books on Natural History, of an Indian Rhinoceros with a second 
born placed between the shoulders, is founded upon fact.. The 
present specimen is certainly interesting as illustrating the method 
by which such structures as the horn of the Rhinoceros may have 
been originally developed. 
«‘A sketch of the animal is given in Sir John C. Willoughby’s lately 
published work on ‘East Africa and its Big Game: The Narrative 
of a Sporting Trip from Zanzibar to the Borders of the Masai.’ ” 
The Secretary exhibited a skin of an albino variety of the Cape 
Mole-Rat (Georychus capensis), forwarded to the Society by the 
Rey. G. H. R. Fisk, C.M.Z.S., of Capetown, and read the following 
extracts from a letter received from Mr. Fisk on the subject :— 
«TI send a skin, prepared for mounting, of a White Mole-Rat, a 
male. It was given to me alive by Mr. Hiddingh, who so kindly gave 
me the one which I sent to you some time ago. This one lived for 
about a week after capture and fed freely, giving no signs of pain ; 
but, after death, I found that it had been too much hurt by the 
trap to recover the injury. I put it into the hands of a taxidermist 
to be properly prepared, thinking that you might like to set it up 
and place it near the cage of the living animal, so that visitors 
might gain an idea of the peculiarities of the creature.” 
Mr. A. Smith Woodward, F.Z.S., exhibited a fragment of the 
rostrum of an extinct Saw-fish, Sclerorhynchus atavus, kindly for- 
warded to him for examination by Prof. Albert Gaudry, and made 
the following remarks :— 
“<The specimen is shown, of the natural size, in the accompanying 
drawing (p. 450), and, like the type in the British Museum, was 
obtained from the Upper Cretaceous series of Mount Lebanon. It 
doubtless pertains to a smaller individual than the last-named fossil, 
and is interesting as showing the extreme slenderness of the rostrum 
