155 



antler, at the šame time, had a considerable portion of the integu- 

 ment forced off, so that it bled profusely, and I stopped the hsemor- 

 rhage by tying the part with twine. The fractured part svvelled, and 

 although uot displaced from its natūrai position, it did not reunite, 

 and in ten days separated ; and in about the šame period the portion 

 beyond the ligature became dead and also fell oif, or more probably 

 they were rubbed off instinctively by the animal ; — from neither of 

 these points did any inerease of growth afterwards occur. Thus the 

 fracture of the horn in the one instance, and the destruction of the 

 " velvet " in the other, equally incapacitated Nature to repair the in- 

 jury, or to continue the growth. I may observe that the boras of 

 the CervideB during their formation are to a certain degree flexible, 

 and may be broken as short and as easily as a raw carrot. Accidents 

 similar in result to those I have now described, from the pugnacious 

 disposition of bucks tovvards each other, are frequently occurring ; 

 and although, during the time of the production of the horns, they 

 will not use them either for attack or defence, they are not the more 

 peacefuUy disposed on that account ; but their attacks and defence 

 are then carried on by their teeth, or by the employment of their 

 sharp, wedge-shaped hoofs ; striking sometimes with one, or by rear- 

 ing the body, greater force is given and both are brought into action ; 

 — and the head being the part usually aimed at, the soft horns are 

 liable to be fractured, or the investing vascular integument to be 

 tora ; in the former case it never again unites, and the extreme part 

 falls ; and in the latter it may be such as to destroy the capability 

 of further production, and that especially if the injury be at the 

 points of the growing antler. Of the power and precision with 

 which the Cervidce are able to strike \vith their hoofs, Gilbert White 

 relates a remarkable example in a hind, which, to protect its fawn 

 from an approaching lurcher, " rushed out of the brake, and taking 

 a vast spring with all her feet close together, pitched on the neck 

 of the dog and broke it short in two." That the popular error I 

 have endeavoured to refute should have arisen cannot be surprising, 

 when we reflect how common was the eustom, in the "olden time," 

 to emasculate bucks to become "hevers," or "heaviers," that the 

 board of the epicure might teem with "good fat venison " all the 

 year through ; and the modes too, or rather degrees of completeness, 

 and the age of the animals when the operation may be performed, 

 being followed by different, and by almost uniform results in each 

 instance, were so likely to impress on the minds of those witnessing 

 them a notion of some marvellous relation of the horns with the 

 testes. 



I will conclude this paper by cursorily stating the effects of perfect 

 and imperfect castration at different ages of the animals. Sir Philip 

 de Grey Egerton, Bart., informed me by letter that, " In order to tęst 

 the accuracy of a vulgar notion, that a relation subsisted between the 

 testicle and the horn, and that an injury to one of the former caused 

 a corresponding deficiency in one of the latter, 1 had two buck 

 fawns deprived, one of the right, the other of the left testicle. The 

 result was that they nevertheless put up horns, and, as far as I could 



