502 FOSSIL ELK OF IRELAND. 



It is a popular opinion with the Indians that the elk 

 is subject to epilepsy, with which he is frequently seized 

 when pursued, and % thus rendered an easy prey to the 

 hunters. Many naturalists affect to disbelieve this ac- 

 count, without, however, assigning any sufficient rea- 

 son. But if it be considered, that, during the growth 

 of the horns, there must be a great increased determi- 

 nation of blood to those parts, which are supplied by the 

 frontal artery, a branch from the internal carotid, it is 

 quite conformable to well established pathological prin- 

 ciples, to suppose, that, after the horns are perfected, and 

 have ceased to receive any more blood, that fluid may 

 be determined to those internal branches of the carotid 

 which supply the brain, and establish a predisposition 

 to such derangements of its circulation as would produce 

 epilepsy, or even apoplexy : if such an effect were pro- 

 duced in consequence of the size of the horns in the 

 elk, it is reasonable to suppose that it prevailed in a 

 greater degree in the fossil animal whose horns were so 

 much larger. 



What could have been the use of these immense 

 horns ? It is quite evident that they would prevent the 

 animal making any progress through a thickly wooded 

 country, and that the long, tapering, pointed antlers 

 were totally unfit for lopping off the branches of trees, 

 a use to which the elk sometimes applies his horns *, and 

 for which they seem well calculated, by having their 

 antlers short and strong, and set along the edge of the 

 palm, somewhat resembling the teeth of a saw in their 



* The elk, when pursued in the forests of North'America, breaks 

 off branches of trees as thick as a man's thigh. 



