3i6 LAMARCK, HIS LIFE AND WORK 



they inhabit they are incessantly exposed to be the 

 prey of carnivorous animals, and find safety only in 

 precipitous flight. Necessity has forced them to run 

 swiftly ; and from the habit they have thus acquired 

 their body has become slenderer and their limbs much 

 more delicate : we see examples in the antelopes, the 

 gazelles, etc. 



" Other dangers in our climate to which are con- 

 tinually exposed the deer, the roebuck, the fallow- 

 deer, of perishing from the chase made by man, have 

 reduced them to the same necessity, restrained them 

 to similar habits, and have given rise to the same 

 results. 



" The ruminating animals only using their legs as 

 supports, and not having strong jaws, which are only 

 exercised in cutting and browsing on grass, can only 

 fight by striking with the head, by directing against 

 each other the vertex of this part. 



" In their moments of anger, which are frequent, 

 especially among the males, their internal feelings, by 

 their efforts, more strongly urge the fluids toward 

 this part of their head, and it there secretes the cor- 

 neous matter in some, and osseous matter mixed with 

 corneous matter in others, which gives origin to solid 

 protuberances ; hence the origin of horns and antlers, 

 with which most of these animals have the head 

 armed. 



" As regards habits, it is curious to observe the 

 results in the special form and height of the giraffe 

 {camelopardalis) ; we know that this animal, the 

 tallest of mammals, inhabits the interior of Africa, 

 and that it lives in localities where the earth, almost 

 always arid and destitute of herbage, obliges it to 

 browse on the foliage of trees, and to make continual 

 efforts to reach it. It has resulted from this habit, 

 maintained for a long period in all the individuals of 

 its race, that its forelegs have become longer than the 

 hinder ones, and that its neck is so elongated that 



