NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 



113 



hut this kind of horn would have been much too heavy for the 

 cow's convenient use. What is to be done ? Why, hollow out 

 the centre of the horn, of course ; but stay this will not do, 

 because how is the horn to be supplied with blood-vessels? 

 in fact, how is it to grow ? Let us see how it is done by the 

 Great Designer. Cut the horn right across with a saw. and you 

 will find inside another horn, only made of bone (see engraving). 

 If the section is made about one-third of the way down the length 

 of the horn, you will be able to pick out a piece of bone in the 

 shape of a cone, on which, or rather round which, the horn 

 proper has shaped itself. This bone fits the cavity with the 

 greatest accuracy ; it is as light as the thinnest paper, and yet as 



SFXTION OF A COW'S HORN. 



strong as a cone of tin. It is everywhere perforated with holes 

 which in life contained the nerves, the veins, and arteries, and we 

 know a cow has all these in her horns ; nerves, proved by the fact 

 that cows do not like their horns touched, and that they can 

 scratch a fly off their hides with the tip of the horn ; arteries 

 and veins, proved by the fact that a horn, when broken, will 

 bleed, and that the horn of a living cow feels quite warm when 

 held in the hand, besides which the nerves and arteries form a 

 union between the internal core of bone and the external 

 covering of horn proper. 



If we now cut the rest of the horn into sections, we shall find 

 that the inside of the bony part is really hollow, hut that very 



VOL. II. Q 



