XXI 
HORNS 
273 
spaces in the frontal bones are absent in young animals, 
and appear gradually with the growth and development 
of the facial and cranial bones. The formation of the 
horn core is a post-natal event, and as the air sinuses 
extend into the frontal bone in some antelopes they 
involve the base of the horn core ; the extent to which 
it is permeated depends on the age of the animal. The 
pedicle, or bridge, which forms the support for the 
horns of hartebeests is quite hollow. This is also true 
of the horn core of the topi. The large horn-cores of 
the kudu and oryx are solid. The museum of the 
Royal College of Surgeons contains some specimens, 
obtained from Sir Victor Brooke’s collection, which 
specially illustrate this point. Also some sections of 
horn-cores from oxen, so permeated with sinuses as to 
appear on section like honeycombs. 
The horns of the rhinoceros, as its name specifies, 
grow on its nose : they contain no bony core, yet that 
portion of the nasal bone which underlies the horns of 
these huge and ugly beasts has a bony projection, but 
it does not enter into the composition of the horn, 
for this part of the rhinoceros is formed from the 
superficial (epithelial) layer of the skin which under¬ 
goes a change termed by physiologists, keratinisation, 
which means that the part becomes converted into 
horn. As a matter of fact the horns on the nose of 
a rhinoceros are from an anatomical point of view a 
mass of agglutinated hairs. Sir John Willoughby shot 
a rhinoceros in East Africa (1889) with three horns in 
a row, one behind the other. The skin with the horns 
on it was shown at a meeting of the Zoological Society, 
London. 
Of the two horns the front one, that nearest the 
animal’s snout is usually the longer, it rarely exceeds a 
foot in length, but some examples have measured as 
much as forty inches. Rhinoceros horn is used for 
making handles for walking sticks and umbrellas, it is 
easily cut with a knife and if a fragment be soaked in 
