The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-05-31
A CURIOUS MONSTER.
1T HAD THREE EYES, ONE On THE
TOP OF ITS HEAD.

IOF VI IFS HEAD.
II Was as Big as an EIephnnt-Dis-
covered in Colorado by Prof. o. c.
Marsh and Presented to the Ma
tIonal Museum--Its Body was Cow
cred with Massive Plates of Bone.
Had IA Horn on Its Nose.
From the Philadelphia Times. o..
Washington.-Prof. o. c. Marsh has con-
tributed to the national museum the skull
of a gigantic reptile that was dug up by
him not long ago in Southern Colorado.
Triceratops is the name given to the crea-
ture by its discoverer who says that it
was about twenty-five feet long, standing
as high as a very big elephant. 1t was
clad in an armor of massive plates Of bone.
and from it's forehead sprang two sharp,
curved horns, each a yard in length. A
third horn adorned the nose, which was
further armed with a powerful cutting
beak. The most remarkable point about
the skull is a hole in its top, through which
a huge eye looked out. The animal, in
fact, had three eyes, it Is believed.
The size of the skull shows that the
head Of the beast was enormous, even for
such a great body In order to hold it up
without getting tired the owner was provi-
ded with a special structure In the shape
Of frill of solid bone, six feet in width,
extending backward from the mead. TO
this the tremendous muscles We're attach
ed. Truly, it must have been a fOrmda-
bic monster, though not dangerous unless
attacked, inasmuch as 1t was sluggish and
stupid. The brain was very small in pro-
portion to the bulk of the animal. AS for
the third eye, no one can say what the
special purpose Of it was. There is a COM
mon green lizard in Maryland, three inches
long, that has similar eye in the top of
its head; but it is blind. However, cor
responding organ Is found in some turtles
and in certain other reptiles, buried in the
middle of the head. yet exhibiting all the
most important elements of structure that
The fact that every human being has a
rudimentary third eye was long ago es-
tablished If you will place the tip of your
finger just above the bridge of your nose
you may imagine that the organ in ques-
ton Is about five inches behind that point
in horizontal line. 1t is called the pin
cal gland" and the ancients used to be-
lieve that it was the center of conscious
ness and the seat of the soul 1t has lost
all likeness to an eye, but in some of the
reptiles referred to a corresponding organ
has actually an eye-sOcket, an optic nerve
connected with the visual tract of the
brain, and even the black inner coat that
is intended by nature to absorb light and
prevent dazzle. The absence of the black
pigment in aIbinOs accounts for the weak
ness of their eyes, as well as for their pink
look.
So here is a monster that looked out up-
on the WOllQ with SuCh q third eve. which
may be supposed to have been an organ
of vision powerful In proportion to the
great size of it. 1T must have been nearly
as large a the eye of the giant souid-a
huge mollusk with tentacles, which of ali
modern animals has the biggest eyes. The
eye Of a giant squid has a diameter equal
to that of goOd-sized dinner plate of
course, in human beings the pineal gland
Is merely structural vestige handed
down from a remote ancestry. Evidently
some very distant ancestors of mankind
possessed a third eye but what the an
cestors N question We're nobody can do
! more than guess. All mammals, including
man, are supposed to be descended from
reptiles, and Prof. e. D. Cope the most
eminent of living palaeontologists de-
cIares that human beings have only to
pursue Inelr common family tree far
enough back in order to find marine
worms as progenitors. From the worms 81
the seas came the first animals with back
Nothing can be more interesting than
the study of the many organs in man
Whlch are mere Yestiges, being no longer
useful to him. The Vermiforr1 aDnerdiI-
| so much advertised of late is one ~
them; In numerous mammals this append
age IS very useful, and even essential
| The blood-sucking vampire bat has a
| huge one, to help digest its food bv AFFORD
| ing more absorbing surface The cow and
| other beasts that chew the end nossa .sc
! II also, IN the shape of a large sack
/ Whlch Is utilized for the storage of food
enat IS not needed for immediate con-
Another remarkable and quite useless
/ organ is the so-called supra-renal can
/ sule, which is attached to the kidney.
/ Its only purpose in a human being an
| pears to be to occasion what is known a.
| Addlsons disease in cases where il
| gets out of order. In such cases. which
! are, happily, rare. the skin of the BODY
| loses 1t natural color and becomes of a
muddy brown hue. The disease is usl1ali,y
! fatal The capsule is presumably the re-
! mains OF what was once a secretory or
! gan.
The intelligent reader has in his neck
| an organ called the thyroid gland" Its
only usefulness seems to be in occas SION
/ ing the disease known as goitre. People
/ in the Savoy and the TyrOl are worst . f.
/ fiicted with this complaint. II is SIM
/ posed that the water they drink derived
/ from the melting of the Alpine glaciers
| causes hypertrophy of the gland In ques-
! ton, the result of which is an enOrr11oi,s
1 tunate come to have a bag-like append
4 age hanging down as far as the waisr
! There IS no known cure for the trouble
| after it has got well started Ii is n very
/ other mammal is deprived of this apDar.
/ emily useless by cutting it out there al
/ ways follows a general degeneration Of
/ all the tissues of the body There is =
! called 'cretin-sm." The Victim never
] grows up. but remains the size of In IN
| FAINT, because the material for the bones
| is not supplied. Recently n means -
! been discovered for the cure of this trou-
/ Bile, which is accomplished by Injections
/ of sort of extract from the thvrioN
! glands of sheep.
On the under side of the human brain is
an organ known as the pituitary BODY"
| which is about the size of the. end Of
| ones thumb. It looks like a lttle brain
/ annexed for some purpose 10 the main
! structure. 1t does not seem to be of anv
! responsible for the freak termed giant
] ISM. 1t is said that excessive growth of