Is the Giraffe provided with more than Two Horns ? 15 



on the 6th of July, 1859, and was therefore about five months 

 old. I have given an account of the accidental circumstances 



o t .... 



which led to its death, together with the anatomical peculiarities 

 it presented, in a paper entitled ( ' Contributions to the Anatomy 

 of the Giraffe/'' published in the Zoological Society's Proceedings 

 for February 14th, 1860. 



3. In an immature male giraffe which died at Edinburgh 

 during the severe winter of 1854, I found the frontal aponeu- 

 rotic thickening much more marked, forming on the dried 

 skull a distinct fibrous mass, which presented an appearance 

 in profile such as I have here represented in the accom- 

 panying diagram; the letters a b indicating the border of 

 the fronto-nasal eminence, and c the fibrous mass. I sub- 

 sequently detached this fibro- cartilaginous matrix 

 for separate preservation and examination, but it 

 was, I believe, swept away with other museum 

 debris, by an assistant who had no knowledge of its 

 value. After removal, it was perfectly transparent, 

 and free from osseous deposit. The giraffe in ques- 

 tion belonged to WombwelFs travelling menagerie, 

 and was represented to me as being about eighteen 

 months old. Having, at the outset, devoted three 

 weeks to its dissection, and renewed my examina- 

 tions of the various organs at subsequent intervals, I 

 may, for further particulars respecting its anatomy, 

 death, etc., refer to my several memoirs in the Edin- 

 burgh Physiological Society's Reports for 1854, the 

 Edinburgh New Philosophical Journal for 1856, and more par- 

 ticularly to the June number of the Annals of Natural History 

 for 1854. 



4. When engaged during the autumn of 1856 in writing 

 the article " Rnminantia" for the Supplement to Dr. Todd's 

 Cyclopcedia of Anatomy and Physiology; I took occasion to visit 

 the Museum of Trinity College, Dublin, expressly with the view 

 of examining the adult cranium of a fine male giraffe, which I 

 understood to be preserved there. As a result of this inspec- 

 tion I subsequently wrote as follows : — " Through the kindness 

 of Dr. Ball we have examined the skeleton of a male giraffe 

 which died at the Dublin Zoological Society's Gardens, and 

 which is now preserved in Dr. Harrison's anatomical museum. 

 In this individual the central cranial eminence is not smooth as 

 in our specimen (above referred to) ; on the contrary, it is 

 particularly rough, owing to the deposition of osseous nodules 

 which bear a marked resemblance to the irregular bony laminse 

 prolonged from the attenuated margins of the bases of the true 

 horns. If these rough prominences could be shown to be 

 separable by maceration, we might with good reason infer the 



