14 Is the Giraffe provided with more than Two Horns ? 



grown Cape giraffes, and they became detached from the 

 frontal and parietal bones after a short maceration. Now if 

 the anterior protuberance had been formed by a similar sepa- 

 rate ossification, this wonld undoubtedly have been demon- 

 strated in a similar manner; it, however, consisted only of a 

 partial elevation of the frontal and nasal bones, as in the adult 

 Cape giraffe." 



The very argument which is here adduced by Professor 

 Owen to prove the absence of the third horn, is precisely the 

 one which I shall presently bring forward to show that the 

 mesial epiphysis exists ; but in the meantime I may observe 

 that the Professor's convictions as to the certitude of his views 

 are elsewhere more strongly expressed. Thus in his excellent 

 article "Giraffe," in Mr. T. Brande's Dictionary of Science, Lite- 

 rature, and Art, at page 514, speaking of this animal, he 

 observes : " Up to a very recent period, we find it described as 

 having callosities on the knees and over the sternum like the 

 camel, and as a kind of lusus with three horns, of which one, 

 being articulated over a suture in the middle line of the fore- 

 head, seemed to take away from the chimerical nature of the 

 unicorn by indicating a transition to that heraldic monster. 

 The truth is, however, that the giraffe possesses neither those 

 callosities nor this median articulated horn." 



Having thus fairly stated the grounds on which the absence 

 of a third horn is denied by our highest authority in vertebrate 

 anatomy, I now proceed to record the evidence and experience 

 which enable me to vindicate the originally received opinion, 

 as expressed by Piippell, and to throw light upon a question 

 which should now, at once and for ever, be set at rest. In this 

 persuasion, let it be observed, I do not stand absolutely alone ; 

 for, as I shall afterwards show, the independent Osteologische 

 Bemerkungen of Dr. George Jaeger, as recorded by him in the 

 twenty-sixth volume of the Acta Acad. G. L. G. Nat. Cur., part 

 i. section 8, for 1855, prove that distinguished anatomist to 

 have been led to a similar conclusion : — 



1. In the young giraffe which died last year at the Zoolo- 

 gical Society's Gardens, Regent's Park, there was only a slight 

 thickening of the subdermal periosteal tissues immediately 

 above the central frontal eminence; but it was sufficiently 

 thickened to allow of detachment by dissection ; and I have 

 preserved the separated portion in a dried state. This young- 

 male giraffe was only about six weeks old. 



2. In another young male giraffe which died at the Zoolo- 

 gical Society's Gardens on the 2nd of December, 1859, the 

 fibrous sub-integumentary aponeurosis was still more markedly 

 thickened ; but there was as yet no development of a gristly 

 cartilaginous tissue within its substance. This giraffe was born 



