Abstract
SIR E. RAY LANKESTER is correct in supposing that I was misled by the last paragraph of the preface to his work on the okapi into the belief that there had been or might be an additional volume of text to supplement the illustrations given in the volume under review. From private correspondence which passed between Sir E. Ray Lankester and myself about three years ago I was under the impression that the “text” alluded to was in existence, and perhaps I arrived too hastily at the conclusion that for reasons of economy it had been put aside because of the intervening publication of M. Jules Fraipont's work. The title “Monograph of the Okapi” to which Sir E. Ray Lankester refers as likely to mislead an appraiser of his work was not of my bestowal, but is the official title of this valuable and admirably produced volume. The illustrations are fully described; but I suppose what I missed, and what I hoped might still be forthcoming, were the deductions to be drawn from these illustrations as to the affinities and systematic position of Okapia: in short, a statement of Sir E. Ray Lankester's personal opinions. He is probably quite right to withhold these until something is known of the beast's musculature and intestines.
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JOHNSTON, H. Sir Ray Lankester's Book on the Okapi. Nature 85, 306 (1911). https://doi.org/10.1038/085306a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/085306a0
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