192 Zoological Society. 



PROCEEDINGS OF LEARNED SOCIETIES. 



ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



May 25, 1847— Harpur Gamble, Esq., M.D., in the Chair. 

 The following communications were made to the Meeting : — 



1. Note on the early generative power of the Goat. By John 

 Davy, M.D., F.R.S., Inspector-General of Army Hospitals. 



In the young salmon, the par, we have the remarkable example, 

 now well-authenticated, of the precocious development of the testes 

 with functional activity. What I have witnessed in the young male 

 goat in this island (Barbadoes) as regards its generative power, is 

 hardly, it appears to me, less remarkable. I shall briefly notice the 

 few circumstances which have come to my knowledge illustrating it ; 

 such as I can state with certainty as facts. 



On the 2nd of May, 1846, a goat which belongs to me gave birth 

 to two kids, a male and a female. When less than a month old, the 

 former exhibited strongly the sexual propensity. When about five 

 weeks old, the penis was protruded in his attempts to copulate. When 

 four months old the mother was in heat, and was then covered and 

 impregnated by hef offspring. Five months after, viz. on the 2nd of 

 February, 1847, she gave birth to four kids — three females, one male, 

 all of the usual size and vigorous. On the 10th of February I had 

 the male kid castrated : each testis was about the size of a French 

 bean. A little transparent fluid was obtained from the vas deferens, 

 which under the microscope, viewed with a high power, exhibited 

 some granules, a few fine fibres, and one that had the appearance of 

 a pretty well-formed spermatozoon. The fluid procured from the in- 

 cised substance of the testis contained many blood-corpuscles, some 

 dark granules and a few small spermatozoa ; these were best seen 

 after having been dried on the glass support. 



The young female received the male shortly after the mother, but 

 was not then impregnated. 



It is said here that the goat breeds at six months old. It is also 

 said that both male and female are two years in attaining their full 

 size. 



The goat of Barbadoes appears to resemble in every respect the 

 common goat of Europe, from whence it is supposed to have been 

 originally brought. 



The precocity of the young male, as I have described it, and of 

 the effect of which in its generative power there can be no doubt, as 

 the female had access to no other male, is here not considered extra- 

 ordinary. Whether the same function at so early an age is exer- 

 cised in a cooler climate, I am ignorant. Should it be found to be 

 so exercised, it may perhaps be considered a provision of nature to 

 secure the preservation of the species, endangered by the localities 



