1871.] 147 [Hyatt. 



by Owen and others, as the probable ancestor of the Cervidae, had 

 no horns even in the adult. The young deer when it is born has 

 none, and the process by which they are acquired, takes place subse- 

 quently. The general characteristics of the deer's antler of the 

 Miocene and Pliocene were simple, with only one tyne or prong like 

 those of the young deer, and the palmate and extensively pronged 

 horns were not brought out fully until the Post-pliocene. To-day, a 

 decline seems to be taking place, since neither the reindeer or the 

 moose equals the extinct Irish elk in the complexity and size of 

 their horns. ' 



If Darwinism can account for the propagation of this new race by 

 the advantage which the short, stabbing horns gives to the bucks, 

 how could any branching antlers ever have arisen from the Miocene 

 deer. In accordance with the theory of natural or sexual selection, 

 the horns should have become longer and sharper and have dropped 

 their tynes, thus making them better weapons. 



The reverse has certainly occurred, and antlers developed of extraor- 

 dinary size, cumbersome and useless in comparison with the short, 

 dagger -like horns of the Miocene deer. According to Darwin's latest 

 modification in his Descent of Man, the increase in the size would be 

 accounted for by sexual selection, namely, that the females would se^ 

 lect the males having the largest horns, and thus the size of the 

 horns would be increased in successive generations. If this be the 

 explanation, how account for the rise of the short horned variety at 

 the present time. Darwin quotes this instance as an example of 

 Natural and Sexual Selection, in his last work, "The Descent of 

 Man" (Vol. n, p. 243, Am. ed.) 



Presuming, however, that natural selection does account for the 

 evolution of the branching horns, and also for the preservation and 

 gradual increase in number of the present spike horned bucks (as it 

 may be fairly assumed in many instances, to act in the preservation 

 and perpetuation of many characteristics), it neither does nor can ac- 

 count for the first appearance of horns, nor the first appearance of a 

 full grown buck having the spike horns. The inadequacy of the 

 theory of natural selection, to show us how characteristics arise, has 

 been repeatedly insisted upon by several authors. Prof. Cope and 

 the writer, in two widely separated departments, among the Reptiles 

 on the one hand, and the Mollusks on the other, have repeatedly 

 pointed out the mode in which characteristics, races, species and 

 genera have arisen. Several writers on the European continent, and 



