A description of the skeleton of the fossil deer of Ireland, Cervus megaceros / Drawn up at the instance of the committee of natural philosophy of the Royal Dublin Society, by John Hart.

  • John Hart
Date:
1825
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A description of the skeleton of the fossil deer of Ireland, Cervus megaceros / Drawn up at the instance of the committee of natural philosophy of the Royal Dublin Society, by John Hart. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    17/36 page 15
    horns, which give the animal its chief characteristic feature. The horns.—That the description of these may be the more intelligible, I will first explain the terms which 1 mean to apply to their several parts. Each horn consists of the socket or root, the burr or coro¬ nary circle, the beam or shaft, the palm and the antlers. The socket or root is the part of the horn which grows out of the frontal bone, and which is never shed; it is smooth, of a brown colour, an inch and half in length, and eleven inches three quarters in circum¬ ference ; in the animal’s life time it was covered by the skin. The coronary or bead-like circle, or burr, is a ring of small, hard, whitish prominences, resembling a string of pearls, which encircles the junction of the socket with the part of the horn which falls annually from the heads of all deer. The beam or shaft extends outwards with a curva- ture whose concavity looks downwards, and backwards. This part is nearly cylindrical at its root, and its length equals about one-fourth of that of the whole horn; its outer end is spread out and flattened on its upper surface, and is continuous with the Palm, which expands outwards in a fan-like forrn, the outer extremity of which measures two feet ten inches across, being its broadest part. Where the beam joins the palm the horn undergoes a kind of twist, the effect of which on the palm is, to place its edges above and below, and its surfaces anterior and posterior; the anterior surface is convex, and looks outwards; the posterior is concave, and its surface looks towards that of the opposite palm. Such is the position of the horns, when the head is so placed that the zyomatic arch is parallel to the horrizon, as it
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