30 



CLAW IN L/OXS TAIL, 



from me in the way that I would apply them, 

 for the first is an excrescence attached to the 

 berk or skin of a plant, as, for instance, in the 

 rose bush, while the other is an excrescence which 

 comes directly from the wood of the tree or shrub, 

 as in the blackthorn. Therefore spike or claw are 

 entirely inappropriate (according to my views) in an 

 attempt to give anything like a precise portrayal of 

 the subject in question. As the former must be made 

 of metal or wood, the latter formed of horn, neither of 

 which is the case in the disputed point. Still I 

 bi'lieve, viz. that the end of the tail of a lion becomes 

 callous, and more and more indurated towards the 

 tip, where the fibre or grain of the skin bec«.'ining 

 altered in its growth direction, by meeting from the 

 reversed sides, forms a corn. The result of this is 

 that the scales of the callosity, which, at first, are 

 parallel with the vertebrae, increase crossways, and 

 so form the termination. This irregularly formed 

 caP sity can be picked into innumerable pieces by 

 the human nail, as the laminae do not repose in 

 regular strata. That the termination of the lion's 

 tail, when thus furnished, is used as an agreeable 

 perturbator to the interior of the owner's ear, or per- 

 chance to disturb the enjoyment of a voracious tick 

 on some portion of the proprietor's person, inaccessi- 

 ble to claws or mouth, even as a tooth-pick on urgent 

 occasions, I cannot say, but I feel convinced that it 

 would be utterly worthless for any purpose where 

 strength and adhesion are required. 



A callosity from a Barbary lion's tail, which I ex- 

 amined carefully through a microscope with the late 

 Mr. Frank Buckland, exactly corresponded with those 

 I procured in South Africa. Further, I have foui:d 

 the same formation on a domestic cat, and am in- 

 formed that it is developed to a greater extent in the 

 veritable wild cat. 



In my first letter to the press upon this subject, I 



