June 8, 1905] 



NA rURE 



127 



LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. 



[The Editor does not hold Iiiinself responsible for opinions 

 expressed by his correspondents. Neither can he undertake 

 tp return, or to correspond with the writers of, rejected 

 manuscripts intended for this or any other part of Nature. 

 No notice is taken of anonymous communications.] 



History of a White Rhinoceros Sku>l. 



In his intLresting " Natural History Essays," in which 

 occurs the description of the white rhinoceros, Mr. (iraham 

 Renshaw makes the following reference to the tirst slvull 

 of this animal which was brought to England : — 



" It would be interesting to know if the white 

 rhinoceros head brought to England by the Rev. John 

 Campbell, about 1815, is still in existence. It appeals to 

 have been preserved as late as 1867 in the Museum of the 

 London Missionary Society at Finsbury, but there seems 

 to be no mention of it during recent years in zoological 

 literature. In a figure now before me the artist has 

 absurdly furnished the open jaws with an imaginary series 

 of perfectly regular pseudoniolar teeth : the square mouth 

 has been distorted to resemble the prehensile lip of the 

 black species, though the slit-like nostrils, position of the 

 eye and semi-tubular ears are delineated with fair correct- 

 ness. The anterior horn of this individual is said to 

 have been 3 ft.- long : and, as figured, from its slender- 



-SkuU of the While Rhinoceros in ihe 

 Natural History. 



ness recalls Col. Hamilton .Smith's description of the 

 mysterious horn, brought from Africa, from which he 

 sought to deduce the existence of a true unicorn in the 

 interior of that Continent " (p. 146). 



In 1902 this very skull was purchased from Mr. Cecil 

 Graham for the American Museum of Natural History by 

 Mr. J. Pierpont Morgan. Mr. Graham has made a large 

 and valuable collection of rhinoceros horn weapons, clubs, 

 knob-kerries, and battle axes, and in course of corre- 

 spondence he wrote of his discovery of the skull as 

 follows : — " There is no record as to how or when the 

 specimen was first brought to England. I found it by 

 chance a few years ago in the City, lying neglected and 

 dirty on the floor of a back room of the London Missionary 

 Society. No doubt it was presented by a missionary 

 before 1821. I especially value the letter dated 1S21." 



The letter referred to by Mr. Graham is from William 

 Cooke, of the Royal College of Surgeons. It is dated 

 November 20, 182 1, and addressed to William Alers 

 Hankev, Esq., Fenchurch Street. It reads as follows : — 

 " My dear Sir, 



" The head in the missionary museum supposed to be 

 the head of the unicorn, appears to belong to a species of 

 Rhinoceros previously unknown in this country, at least, 

 there is no such specimen in the Hunterian Museum which 

 may be regarded as the National Depository for com- 

 parative anatomy. In that grand collection there are 



heads which nearly resemble it, but there are points in 

 which the diversity of conformation indicates a decided 

 specific difference. 



" Permit me to suggest to you, and through you to the 

 Directors of the Missionary Society, that a rare specimen 

 of that nature is entitled to a place where it can be niore 

 justly appreciated than it ever will be in their collection. 

 I need not suggest to you the advantages which result 

 from a concentration of the different productions of nature 

 — from bringing under one view the genera and species 

 of the various natural sciences — especially when they are 

 not only rendered available for minute distinction, but by 

 a liberal policy are accessible to men of science from all 

 parts of the world. I can have no selfish motive in 

 suggesting that the head possessed by the Missionary 

 Society would become much more an object of interest if 

 deposited in the Hunterian Museum, than it ever will be 

 should it reiTiain in the Old Invry. If deposited at the 

 College of Surgeons it will not only fall under the notice 

 of Naturalists from all quarters, but it will likewise be a 

 subject of reference in the lectures on comparative anatomy 

 annually delivered at that Institution. 



" The Missionary directors unquestionably will consider 

 the advantages which may result to their own Society, as 

 w^ell as the promulgation' of scientific knowledge ; and if 

 I might presume to express an opinion on this subject, it 

 would be in favour of the head being presented to the 

 College. It would there be preserved as a testimony of 

 praiseworthy liberality — it would soften prejudice, where 

 perhaps there is a deep-rooted antipathy to religion, but 

 where conciliation is of great iinportance ; and if it re- 

 main in its present situation for a few years it will be 

 liable to destruction, or to essential injury at least. 



"If you have never seen the Museum of the College 

 of Surgeons it would afford me great pleasure to accom- 

 pany you thither any Friday. 



"I feel assured, tiiy dear Sir, that you will excuse the 

 liberty I have taken in addressing you on this topic; — and 

 believe me to be 



" Yours most obediently and 



" respectfully 

 " (signed) William Cooke." 



In spite of this appeal, the skull evidently remained iri 

 the possession, of the Missionary Society until Mr. Graham 

 rescued it from oblivion. Although the occipital portion 

 has been sawn off, it is a remarkably fine specimen, as 

 shown by the accompanying photograph. The nasal horn 

 is firmly attached to the skull ; the frontal horn is de- 

 tachable, but readily fits in place. The principal measure- 

 ments are as follows : — 



Total length of skull, along top 778 mm. =30^ inches 



Length of grinding series 287 „ =ili j. 



,, frontal horn 280 ,, =11 ,, 



,, nasal horn 890 ,, =35 ,> 



(Measured on a straight line.) 



The skull is now exhibited with two war clubs manu- 

 factured from the nasal frontal horns of the white 

 rhinoceros, with a skull of the related woolly rhinoceros 

 from Siberia, presented bv the Moscow Museum, through 

 Madame Pavloff, also with a skull of the Rhinoceros 

 pachygnathus, a related or ancestral form, from Pikermi, 

 presented by the Munich Museum through Prof, von, 

 Zittel. Henry Fairfield Osborn. 



American Museum of Natural History, New York, 

 April 24. 



Fictitious Problems in Mathematics. 



Your reviewer, gives a new definition of "a perfectly 

 rough body " (Nature, June i), which he says is that of 

 the mathematician. The definition appears to me to con- 

 tradict what he has elsewhere said. But I need not enlarge 

 on this point, for his criticism of a problem should be 

 tried, not by his definition, but by that given in the book 

 in which the problem occurs. 



The reviewer accuses Cambridge examiners " of endow- 

 ing bodies with the most inconsistent properties in the 

 matter of perfect roughness and perfect smoothness "■ 



NO. 1858, VOL. 72] 



