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Show ^/ b ON ABNORMAL HORNS OF CERYUS SIKA. [Apr. 2, would justify the placing of the horny spines in any other category than as modified tracts of epidermis. The whole structure is an exaggeration of the pads of thickened epidermis upon the soles of the foot, and is in all probability comparable to such callosities as those found in the Equidfe. In any case I claim to have disposed of any theory that could account for these horny spines as the hardened secretion of a gland. They are plainly of a corn- or wart-like texture, though possibly to be looked upon as a pathological condition which has persisted and become normal. A final poinl to which I would direct attention in this communication is the interesting correspondence shown between hand and foot. A structure peculiar to the hand of one Lemur is now known to characterize the foot of another species. There are among the Mammalia but few details of structure in which the hind limb does not, as it were, copy the fore limb. This correspondence is shown among the Lemurs in another curious point to which attention has of course been directed, since the facts are well enough known. It is not unusual in that group for the second digit in both manus and pes to be peculiar in some respect. This digit in tbe foot has a claw instead of a nail, while in the hand it is sometimes aborted altogether. The structure, however, with which I deal in the present paper is a positive and detailed point of likeness between hand and foot. April 2, 1901. Dr. A. GUNTHER, F.R.S., Vice-President, in the Chair. Prof. Bell exhibited two specimens of an Echinoderm, Astro-phyton clavatum, the many-branched arms of which were closely entertwined, while the bursal slits (by which the genital products are evacuated) were turgid and widely open. Recalling the observations of Prof. Ludwig on Asterina and of Dr. Jickeli on Antedon, Prof. Bell suggested that we had here a third example of sexual congress among Echinoderms. He further stated that he had called the attention of his valued correspondent, Mr. F. W . Townsend of Karachi, from whom the Trustees of the British Museum had received the specimens, to the difference in coloration between the two specimens, and had asked him to use his opportunities for discovering if the difference was constant and sexual. Since he had come into the room, Mr. Byrne had suggested to him that the entanglement of the arms might aid in the fertilization of the ova. Mr. R. E. Holding exhibited and made remarks upon the horns of a Japanese Deer (Cervus sika), indicating arrest in the development of tbe left horn, apparently due to a cerebral tumour and adhesions in the right hemisphere of the cerebrum. A dissection |
