8224 



Quadrupeds. 



according to verbal information kindly communicated to me by 

 Dr. Gunther, of the British Museum, who is familiar with the speci- 

 men, — the third horn was equally well marked and separated by 

 maceration. 



" 9. Lastly, I adduce additional conclusive evidence from Dr. George 

 Jaeger's ' Bemerkungen uber die Horner und Epiphysen,' &c, as 

 recorded in the twenty-sixth volume of the c Acta,' already referred to, 

 and 1 beg to call particular attention to this extract, which I translate 

 from a foot-note appended to the memoir in question ; the italics are 

 mine. The author says : — c In the skull of a young male in the col- 

 lection at Munich, whose horns are scarcely two inches long, and 

 likewise separated, there is, in the place of the third central horn, a 

 rather strongly marked elevation of the frontal bone, but no trace of 

 an epiphysis. In the skull (nineteen inches long) of a male received 

 a short time ago from the North of Africa, through Dr. Heuglin, which 

 skull we believe to be mature, the suture of the hind horns is still per- 

 ceptible, but the serrated borders are almost firmly united to the 

 frontal and parietal bones. The mesial horn, however, is still quite 

 separated by the epiphysial cartilage from the frontal and nasal 

 bones, whose sutures are not yet obliterated, as also obtains in the 

 other cranial bones. The anterior margin of the central horn-bone 

 projects about one inch over the posterior limit of the nasal bone. 

 From thence the anterior part of the horn rises to the tip, forming a 

 very gradual slope, while the posterior inclination is comparatively 

 steep and short. It results from this that the central horn unites with 

 the bones much later than the hinder horns, which are common to 

 both sexes. 1 " 



A few questions that are not mooted by Dr. Cobbold appear to me 

 deserving of attention : First. Is the female giraffe invariably without 

 the frontal process here denominated a third horn ? Secondly. Sup- 

 posing this frontal process not to be a horn, what is it ? is it the homo- 

 logue of any other bone or process among suckling animals ? Is there 

 any reason to suppose that at any period of the life of the male 

 giraffe the horns, or either of them, are denuded of hair ? In conclu- 

 sion, I desire to state that 1 am quite ready, from an attentive perusal 

 of Dr. Cobbold's paper, to give in my adhesion to the tricorn theory : 

 the question seems to have been removed, by careful investigation, 

 from the region of conjecture, and must henceforward cease to be 

 regarded as the fallacious hypothesis which Professor Owen appears 

 to have considered it. 



Edward Newman. 



