OF THE HOLLOW-HORNED RUMINANTS. 61 



and shut at the will of the animal. These organs are developed to a greater or less 

 e.xtent in most Deer, and about half the Ruminants iiitherto called Antelopes. Their 

 functions and uses, as already observed, are still very obscure. At the meeting of the 

 British Association in 1833 I proposed this question for the consideration of naturalists 

 and physiologists; it was answered the year following by Dr. Jacob' of Dublin, who 

 considered the crumens as sexual organs, because they are more largely developed and 

 in a state of greater activity in the adult males than in the females and young. To say 

 that they are sexual, however, does not by any means clear up the obscurity which 

 hangs over their functions and uses ; for, in the first place, it does not explain why they 

 should be present in some cases and absent in others ; nor, secondly, does it show any 

 positive or necessary relation between the crumens and the organs of generation. It is 

 not therefore a logical induction, but a mere hypothesis — plausible enough in some re- 

 spects, but which does not explain the whole of the facts. Were the crumen a mere 

 sexual organ, intended to carry off from the system those superfluous secretions which 

 at certain periods are directed to the purposes of reproduction, we should naturally ex- 

 pect to find it in opposition to what Dr. Jacob has stated, and what is really the fact — 

 less active in the rutting-season than at any other time, because the secretions which 

 are supposed to excite it are then directed elsewhere ; besides, the hypothesis does not 

 at all account for its presence in the Deer tribe, where the secretions in question are 

 directed to the reproduction of the horns, and where it is, nevertheless, almost universal, 

 any more than for its absence in the greater number of hollow-horned Ruminants. 



These considerations are sufficient to show that its uses are not sufiiciently accounted 

 for by calling the crumen a sexual organ ; but what its real functions are I am at a loss 

 to determine. Colonel Smith supposes that they may " afibrd increased facilities in 

 breathing, and greater powers of scent^;" and their position in the vicinity of the organs 

 of sensation, as well as the use which the animals are often observed to make of them, 

 by protruding and rubbing them against strange substances, particularly when they 

 possess agreeable or aromatic odours, certainly countenances the idea that they may be 

 in some way subservient to the intelUgence of the animals. Neither does the presence 

 of the gland at the bottom of the crumen contradict this idea ; for the nose, the tongue, 

 the eye, and the ear, all have their appropriate glands which secrete peculiar fluids to 

 lubricate the organ, and keep it fit for the reception of sensorial impressions. Indeed, 

 when these secretions are stopped, from any derangement of the gland, and the organ 

 becomes hard and dry, its acuteness is impaired, or its function entirely ceases, in pro- 

 portion to the intensity of the derangement. Now the interior of the crumen is lubri- 

 cated and kept moist by its appropriate secretion, exactly like the Schneiderian mem- 

 brane ; whether it be endowed with sensitive nerves, and have functions in any way 

 similar, are questions for the comparative anatomist and physiologist ; but whatever 



'Report of the British Association for 1834. - Griff. Anim. King., iv. 163. 



