636 Growth of Deer Antlers 



its entire body is loose and spongy, more condensed at the circumference than 

 within, but has nowhere attained the consistency of hard bone, so as to close 

 up the blood-vessels leading into it from the periosteum. 



"These stumps of the antlers are carried till the next spring, when a new 

 antler shoots out from the old stump not so large as its predecessor, and grows 

 on in the same way and at the same rate as on the perfect animal, till those so 

 far mature as to shed their velvet, when as before that on the mutilated animal 

 stops its growth. In the meantime the old stump has enlarged its diameter and 

 put out large tubercles as if supplemental to the burr, which is also con- 

 siderably enlarged. The new antler thus produced is not so large as the former, 

 and if branched has less tines. And so this process goes on year after year, each 

 succeeding antler being less in size and perfection than its predecessor, while 

 the enlargement at the lower end becomes an exaggerated burr. This process 

 of growth differs very considerably in different individuals of the same species. 

 In some, in a few years, these stumps grow to an enormous size, covered all 

 over with large tubercles, some of them amounting to shafts two or three 

 inches long, which may be frozen and broken off in the winter, while neither 

 may be so conspicuous as to be recognized as a beam. The whole of this irregu- 

 lar mass is ever covered with the fine, soft, glossy fur. These two large masses 

 in the place of the antlers, covered all over with these rudimentary shafts, 

 present a very curious and interesting appearance on the head of a deer." 



Similar deformed antlers in various North American deer, following cas- 

 tration, are mentioned or pictured by sketches in the writings of Seton." Town- 

 send and Smith" show several photographs of two Virginia deer which had 

 been castrated. The deformed antlers resulting from castration are sometimes 

 referred to as "cactus-antlers" in the United States. 



Similar observations for European deer of various species have been col- 

 lected by Gaskoin,^^ Fowler," Rorig,"'^* and Brehm.^" In the European roe 

 deer a similar but more peculiar and striking deformity of the antlers occurs 

 following castration. In these deer the antlers become converted into huge 

 masses of rubbery, exuberant protuberances, which are permanently covered 

 by fur, remain vascular, and are only moderately calcified. An outspoken 

 example of this type of antler deformity, designated as "wig antlers," because 

 of its resemblance to an old-fashioned wig, is shown in a photograph by Tan- 

 dler and Grosz.^° A related, although somewhat different, response to castration 

 has been observed in the reindeer (Tandler,"^ Tandler and Grosz'"). In rein- 

 deer oxen, according to Tandler, the antlers are much larger than in the bulls, 

 and they never lose their velvet completely. Reindeer oxen, according to these 

 observers, contrary to all other observed species of castrated deer, do, however, 

 shed and renew their antlers annually, although the antlers are shed several 

 months later in the oxen than in the bulls. However, Jacobi" adds the ob- 

 servation that the antlers of castrate reindeer, due to a preponderance of 

 soft, spongy bone, are not so hard as those of normal animals. Contrary to 



