George B. Wislocki 637 



Tandlcr, Jacobi claims (p. 238), however, that totally castrated oxen drop 

 their antlers at the same time as bulls. It should be remarked, however, that 

 the data regarding castration in reindeer are not so trustworthy or complete 

 as for other deer, because reindeer are frequently mutilated by the Lapps by 

 crushing the testes, instead of by actual castration, and in the cases cited by 

 Tandler and by Jacobi there is no evidence that the degree of castration was 

 ever verified in any individual instance by post-mortem examination. 



Tandler and Grosz also contribute briefly the statement that in a doe of 

 the European roe deer, as well as in a second doe of undesignated species, both 

 of them belonging to species in which normally the females do not possess 

 antlers, removal of the ovaries did not induce formation of antlers. Similarly 

 in a female reindeer, a species in which the female normally possesses antlers, 

 the annual growth and renewal of the antlers was not modified by bilateral 

 ovariectomy. 



Various interpretations have been placed on the observations outlined 

 above. Regarding his own experiments with deer, Caton'^ remarked in 1877, 

 "We may admit that one physical body can only produce a physical effect 

 upon another body by a physical medium, and so conclude that there must 

 be a physical medium between the testes and the antlers, specially designed 

 and qualified to produce the effect observed; but if so it is as yet not identified, 

 and we can only hope that some more ingenious and careful observer may find 

 it. The utmost we may safely say now is that in some way the testes enable or 

 stimulate the proper blood vessels to carry into the antler a larger amount of 

 earthy matter and there properly deposit it than they can do after the testes 

 are removed, presuming at the same time that the absence of the generative 

 organs deprives these vessels of, or weakens other important functions neces- 

 sary to, the full maturity of the antler." 



Tandler and Grosz"^ summarize their observations on roe deer to the effect 

 that castration at a time when the velvet is present leads directly to the forma- 

 tion of wig antlers, while castration after the velvet has been shed imposes 

 prompt loss of the antlers and subsequent development of wig antlers. Con- 

 cerning reindeer Tandler' concludes that antler formation is independent 

 of the presence of the gonads. A castrated reindeer, whether male or female, 

 renews its antlers annually, as do the individuals who are in possession of 

 gonads. Consequently, according to Tandler, the antlers of reindeer represent 

 a species character which is independent of the gonads. 



A more recent contributor (Olt,"^), speculating on the gonad-antler relation- 

 ship based on consideration of castrated roe deer, begins with the assumption 

 that spermatogenesis is limited to the rutting season, whereas the testicular 

 hormones are given off constantly throughout the year. Furthermore he postu- 

 lates four testicular hormones: one, which induces antler growth; a second, 

 which regulates growth; a third, which initiates resorption of the velvet by a 

 marked local "eosinophilia"; and a fourth hormone, which acts on the muscu- 



