RECORDS OF MEETINGS 341 



The minutes of the last meeting of the Section were read and 

 approved. 



The following programme was then offered: 



Henry Fairfield Osborn, Phylogeny and Ontogeny of the Horns 



op Mammals. 

 Henry Fairfield Osborn, Skull Measurements in Man and the 



Hoofed Mammals. 

 Frederic A. Lucas, Whaling in the Olden Time. 



Summary of Papers. 



Professor Osborn said in abstract: The recent discovery of the modes 

 of origin of the horns in the titanotheres, a perissodactyl group remotely 

 related to horses, tapirs and rhinoceroses, permits of a comparison of 

 phylogenesis with the ontogenesis of the horns in bovine mammals. 

 The latter is based upon an osteological series recently prepared by Mr. 

 S. H. Chubb, the former is based on the rich phylogenic series of Eocene 

 titan otheres in the American Museum of Natural History. The conclu- 

 sion is that ontogeny closely recapitulates phylogeny, that the genesis 

 is gradual or continuous, that the horns arise definitely and deter- 

 minately. In the bovine series it seems, in accord with the conclusions 

 of Durst, that the horn first appears as a circular thickening of the skin, 

 accompanied by accelerated growth of the hair preparatory to the forma- 

 tion of the keratin of the horny substance, at a period considerably prior 

 to any sign of the horn in the bony structure of the frontals. This 

 raises the problem, which will form the subject of a special paper in 

 the Annals of the Academy, as to what element first arises in connection 

 with horn evolution, namely: (1) the psychic, or desire to use the horn; 

 (2) the epidermal callous or keratin protection of the bony horn center, 

 or (3) the bony or osseous horn itself. It would appear that the psychic 

 tendency must precede the epidermal and that the latter precedes the 

 osseous, but this disputed point requires further investigation. 



The paper was illustrated with lantern slides, drawings and specimens. 



Professor Osborn, in his second paper, said in abstract: Comparative 

 anatomists and zoologists have been slow to introduce into mammalogy 

 systems of measurement by indices and ratios, which have proved of 

 such universal value in anthropology. It is found among the hoofed 

 mammals, from studies undertaken by the author with the co-operation 

 of Dr. W. K. Gregory, that cephalic indices and limb ratios between 

 different segments of the skeleton are far more significant than systems 

 of direct measurement. These cephalic indices of the gradual changes 

 of proportion between different regions of the skull have the value of 



