172 THE DEER OF AMERICA. 



through indentations in the burr. So was conclusively refuted 

 the old notion that the growth of the burr destroys those blood- 

 vessels by compression, and hence the velvet dies for want of nu- 

 triment. This notion was the result of an ingenious guess with- 

 out study and investigation. And so it is of many theories in 

 natural history. 



The evidence, derived from a very great multitude of observa- 

 tions, made through a course of years, is conclusive that nature 

 prompts tlie animal to denude its antlers of their covering, at 

 a certain period of its growth, Avhile yet the blood has as free 

 access to that coverins; as it ever had. 



While, as I have shown, this is a true bone, and is supplied 

 its nourishment in substantially the same way as other bones are 

 supplied, it is still an anomalous bone, and nature has provided 

 means meet for these anomalies. It springs up rapidly, and, in 

 a few months so far matures that it ceases to require nourish- 

 ment for its enlargement, but only for its internal solidification, 

 and does not, to any appreciable degree, undergo the changes of 

 waste or absorption and renewal which take place with the inter- 

 nal bones, but the equivalent of this is provided for by its entire 

 removal so soon as it becomes inert, and then succeeds again its 

 entire renewal. If the periosteum is destroyed on a portion of 

 the internal bone, the part thus denuded is liable to die for want 

 of the requisite nutriment and to be thrown off from the rest of 

 the bone as foreign matter. In the antler, when the periosteum 

 is entirely removed from the whole surface, it still lives for a 

 time, and progresses with its internal growth, filling up the cav- 

 ities of the cancellous tissue with great rapidity from the abun- 

 dant supply of nutriment it receives through the beam from its 

 very seat, till the work is done, and the antler becomes an inert 

 mass, a foreign substance, and it is thrown off entire. 



These are the peculiarities of this anomalous member. Now 

 let us examine and we shall see how beautifully nature has pro- 

 vided, in the system for nutrition, to meet these peculiarities, 

 these extraordinary requirements. In doing this we shall be 

 obliged to run a sort of parallel in the process of growth with 

 the internal persistent bones, for so shall I be enabled to explain 

 the most intelligibly the results of my investigations. 



In both, the great source of nutriment, during active growth, 

 is the arterial system of the periosteum. Within we find the 

 Haversian system complete, with only such modifications as the 

 exigencies which the peculiarities of this bone present. For in- 



