154 



I could place before the Society parallel instances without eud, but 

 I have considered it unnecessary to offer more. 



There can be no doubt tliat the growth of both antlers may be 

 simultaneously impeded, by a statė of geueral ill-health of an animal, 

 from whatever cause it may have arisen, a diseased organ, or other 

 ailment ; it remains to be accounted for, how one horn only should 

 so frequently be affected in animals possessing perfect constitutional 

 health. No' one, I imagine, can have observed the herds of deer in 

 parks, without noticing always several among each, having one more 

 or less incomplete antler, and sometimes both ; and if these were 

 caused by any disease, the cireumstance would indicate an unwhole- 

 some condition of the stocks of all parks in the kingdom. From 

 the conversations and correspondence I have had with most expe- 

 rienced park-keepers, and others well versed in knowledge of deer, 

 and fi-om niy own observations, I have no doubt that the occurrence 

 is almost invariably from external injury to the hom itself during 

 the time of its formatiou, or to the hairy vascvilar integument, or 

 "velvet," by which it is invested during that period. An instance 

 illustrative of this opinion I witnessed in our Gardens some two years 

 ago. An Axis Deer {Cervus Axis), whose antlers were about half 

 produced, was required to be caught, and in making resistance, it 

 sprang up, and being in a small pen, struck one horn against the 

 roof, by which it was fractured, about three inches from its extremity, 

 without rupturing or injuring the velvet covering; and the brow- 



