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assure me that the above statement is true. Professor WALLACE has 
kindly written me the following note on the practice of cutting off the 
appendage: 
“For the protection of ‘cast’ ewes coming south from the High- 
lands of Scotland in October in the same flock with ‘cast’!) rams of 
their own breed (Cheviot), it was a regular practice to cut the ‘worm’ 2) 
off the rams, to prevent them getting lambs on the way, an important 
matter as the cast ewes were intended to breed half-bred lambs by a 
long-wool ram.” 
Professor WALLACE also informs me that fraudulent breeders, be- 
fore selling rams for breeding purposes, in order to save themselves 
the trouble of keeping apart the rams from ewes with which they did 
not want them to breed, have been known to cut off the filiform 
appendage, this method of rendering the animals barren being not 
readily detected like ordinary castration. In cases where the filiform 
appendage has been cut off, there can be nothing to prevent the dis- 
“ charge of the sperms into the vagina during coition but this does 
not appear to be enough to secure fertilization. If therefore the testi- 
mony of breeders is correct there can be no alternative than to suppose 
that the function of the appendage is insertion into the os uteri. 
In view of this complexity in the sheep’s copulatory organs 
Dr. Gapow has made the suggestion that variation in the degree of 
mechanical adjustment between the male and female organs is a pos- 
sible cause of barrenness in sheep. ‘The chief variation in the male 
organ is in the length of the filiform prolongation, which may be any- 
thing between one and a quarter and two inches in length. The 
difference, at least so far as I have observed, does not appear to 
depend on the breed. Mr. Hrape’s statistics?) for English breeds, 
however, show that the loss to sheep breeders from barrenness, as 
distinguished from abortion, is relatively slight, though quite appre- 
clable in some breeds. 
1) Cast Cheviot ewes in the Highlands are five-year-old ewes which 
are no more use for service by rams of their own kind in the moun- 
tains, but on coming down to a low contry and better food are put to 
a ram of another breed. Vide Watuacn, ‘Farrn Live-Stock of Great 
Britain’, 3rd edition, London 1893. 
2) The name given by breeders etc. to the filiform appendage. 
3) Heapz, Note of the Fertility of different Breeds of Sheep etc. 
Proc. R. Soc. London, Vol. 65, 1899. 
