THE STAG. 75 



curious and fantastic, rather than either of these parti- 

 cular abnormities. A thousand specimens of antlers 

 may be examined without finding them, and yet there 

 are exceptions to the operations of both these laws.* 

 For the one given here I am indebted to His Serene 

 Highness the reigning Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Grotha. 

 The stag that bore it was shot by His Highness, Sept. 

 7th, 1860, in the Thuringian forest near Grotha. 



When from a shot or other accident the health of 

 the animal has been impaired, the horns are shed later, 

 and those which succeed, instead of having more points 

 than the old ones, are less in number than those of the 

 year before. A proof how necessary perfect health and 

 all available juices of the body are for aiding nature in 

 completing the work of her short but vigorous effort. 



Nor in our computation of this effort are we to have 

 in view such antlers only as some of us occasionally see ; 

 moderate in dimension and slender in form throughout. 

 To appreciate the procreative activity and power that is 



^ The operation of a law in nature may, of course, be constantly dis- 

 turbed, and sucb is the case here. But " still," to use the words of 

 Mr. Buckle, in that great work which forms an epoch in our national 

 mental development, " Ciyilisation in England," vol. i. p. 28, " the law 

 itself remains intact.'' " For," to quote further, " a law of nature being 

 merely a generalisation of relations, and having no existence except in 

 the mind, is essentially intangible ; and, therefore, however small the 

 law may be, it can never admit of exceptions, though its operation may 

 admit of innumerable exceptions." 



