30 



HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



skull, from the summit of which a new antler is 

 developed. In most existing deer this process is 

 repeated with great regularity at the same period of 

 the year. Even the great horns of the wapiti, and, 

 judging by all analogy, those of the Irish elk (Mega- 

 ceros), the pair of which weigh seventy pounds, more 

 than all the bones of the skeleton put together, are 

 produced in the course of three or four months. 



The antler may be small, simple, straight, sub- 

 cylindrical, tapering, and pointed, as in certain South 

 American deer (pudu and brocket) ; but more often 

 it sends off one or more branches, called " tynes " or 

 ' ' snags. " In this case, the main stem is termed the 

 "beam." Commonly, all the branches of the antler 

 are cylindrical, and gradually tapering. Sometimes, 

 as in the fallow deer and the_extinct megaceros, they 

 are more or less expanded or flattened, the antler 

 being then said to be "palmated." In young 

 animals the antlers are always small and simple, and 

 in those species in which they are branched or pal- 

 mated, their complete development is only gradually 

 acquired in several successive annual growths. This 

 process is exceedingly well illustrated by a series 

 of specimens exhibited in the Natural History 

 Museum (to which they were presented by W. H, 

 St. Quintin, Esq.) of the antlers of the same stag 

 {Cervus elaphus) grown and shed in six successive 

 years (see Fig. i8). The animal was born in June, 

 1880, and was kept under careful observation in a 

 park in Yorkshire. In the year of its birth it had no 

 antlers, but in the summer of 1881 those represented 

 in No. I were grown, and shed in the following 

 spring, 1S82, when the animal was nearly two years 

 old; No. 2 were grown in 1882, and shed in April, 

 1883, and so on with the others, until in August, 

 1886, the animal was killed with its newly-grown 

 sixth pair of antlers. This series shows not only that 

 the antlers on the two sides are not always symmetrical, 

 but also that the tynes on the same side do not 

 necessarily resemble those of the preceding or 

 succeeding years. No. 3 of the right side, for 

 example, want the second or bez-tyne, and the same 

 tyne is only indicated by a slight projection in No. 2 

 on the left side. No. 5 has three tynes on the 

 crown or top of the beam on the right side, and 

 but two on the left ; in No. 6 these numbers are 

 reversed. 



An interesting parallel has been shown here, as in 

 so many other cases, between the development of the 

 race and that of the individual. The earliest known 

 forms of deer, those of the Lower Miocene, had no 

 antlers, as in the young of existing species. The 

 deer of the Middle Miocene had simple antlers, with 

 not more than two branches, as in many existing 

 deer of the second year. Species occur in the Upper 

 Miocene with three branches to the antlers ; but it 

 was not till the Upper Pliocene and Pleistocene 

 times that deer were met with having antlers 

 developed with that luxuriance of growth and beauty 



of form characteristic of some of the existing species 

 in a perfectly adult state. 



Among recent Cervidse antlers are wanting in the 

 musk-deer [Moschus moschiferus) and the Chinese 

 water-deer {Hydropotes iuennis), but their absence in 

 both these forms is compensated by large canine tusks 

 in the male animal. In the reindeer (Ta7-attdus 

 rangifer) alone the female carries antlers as well as 

 the male ; in all other deer they are present in the 

 male only. 



A CHAPTER ON PHOTO-MICROGRAPHY. 



THE art of taking pictures of objects under the 

 microscope by means of photography has been 

 generally regarded as beyond the scope of the 

 ordinary microscopist. In the first place the cost of 

 the apparatus is considerable; the ordinary "photo- 

 micrographic camera," being set down in the opti- 

 cian's list at prices varying from £"] to ^10, and this 

 is exclusive of plates, chemicals, and all those other 

 articles which form the equipment of an ordinary 

 photographer. In the second place, comparatively 

 few men have that competent knowledge of both 

 photography and microscopy which the union of the 

 two sciences demands. 



But while few have this two-fold knowledge them- 

 selves, there cannot be many microscopists who have 

 not a friend who photographs, and these two may 

 co-operate, and without purchasing any special 

 apparatus obtain very fair results. The writer of 

 this paper is a microscopist of some experience, but 

 has little knowledge of photography ; but working 

 with two photographers who are quite unskilled in 

 microscopy, the joint union has produced some very 

 respectable photo-micrographs. 



We propose then to naiTate the process by which 

 the writer, together with two photographic friends — 

 Mr. P. L. Foster, and] Mr. R. H. Tahourdin— 

 obtained the photographs enclosed. 



Our apparatus was of the simplest — A "Star" 

 microscope by Messrs. Beck (with rack and pinion 

 coarse adjustment), and an ordinary camera by the 

 Stereoscopic Company. (We may here remark, that 

 the cheapest form of camera would do equally well, 

 as no use is made of the lens.) The light used was 

 that of a small paraffin microscope lamp, 'attached, 

 as usual, to a rod on which it could slide up and 

 down. 



The actual process is as follows : — 



Remove the lens from the camera, place the 

 microscope in a horizontal position, and place the 

 eye-piece end of the microscope about half an inch 

 inside the hole of the camera. (In some books it is 

 recommended to remove the eye-piece, but we found 

 that we got a better image when it was left in.) 

 Cut out a circle in a sheet of black cardboard so that 

 the tube of the microscope fits tightly into it, and let 



