MEGACEROS HIBERNICUS. 463 



Fig. 189. 



Perforated rib of the Megaceros, from Hart's Memoir. 



which there is an irregular effusion of callus."* "This 

 opening," he says, " appears evidently to have been pro- 

 duced by a sharp-pointed instrument, which did not pene- 

 trate so deep as to cause the animal's death, but which 

 probably remained fixed in the opening for some length 

 of time afterwards; in fact, such an effect as would be 

 produced by the head of an arrow remaining in a wound 

 after the shaft was broken off. 1 ' Op. cit. p. 29. 



But a conical arrow-head, with a base one inch in dia- 

 meter, sticking in a rib with its point in the chest, must 

 have pierced the contiguous viscera, and, rankling there, 

 have excited rapid and fatal inflammation. The evidence 

 of the healing process in the bone, would rather show that 

 the instrument which pierced the rib, had not been left 

 there to impede the operations of the ' vis medicatrix 

 naturae. 1 A pointed branch of the formidable antler is as 

 well suited to inflict such a wound, as the hypothetical 

 arrow ; and if the combative instincts of the rutting Stag 



* Dr. Hart's ' Description,' &c., p. 21. Dr. Hart gives the following analysis 

 by Dr. Stokes of the rib of a Megaceros : 



Animal matter 42'87 



Phosphates, with a trace of fluate of lime . . . 43'45 



Carbonate of lime 9'14 



Oxides 1-02 



Silica 1-14 



Water and loss 2*38 



100-00 



