35 



that accident or operation occurred which prevented the development 

 of its sexual characters, at nearly the same age as the one last ad- 

 verted to: it has since continued to increase in bulk, and it even ex- 

 ceeds in size, as often happens in castrated animals, the perfect adult 

 male of the same species : but the secondary sexual characters of the 

 male have not been developed in it ; it retains the dull fawn colour 

 of immaturity, and its horns have not acquired the strength, the annu- 

 lation, or the spiral turns which belong to those of the adult and per- 

 fect male. One of the horns has been broken off; perhaps the more 

 readily from some weakness in its structure, consequent on its unim- 

 portance to an animal so degenerated : the other retains, at a short 

 distance from its normally formed tip, a few rings, but beyond these 

 the surface has become smooth, the substance remains weak and 

 comparatively small, and the direction, instead of being in a succes- 

 sion of spiral turns, is in a single sweep, passing backwards above the 

 base of the ear and then descending along the curve of the neck : it 

 has, though weaker, much of the character of the horns of the African 

 race of Sheep. The general appearance of the animal is also sheep- 

 like and tame. 



Mr, Bennett proceeded to remark that these animals, although cu- 

 rious and interesting on account of the variations exhibited by them, 

 in accordance with their several conditions, in those acknowledged 

 secondary sexual characters, colour and horns, were yet more in- 

 teresting when considered with reference to the state of another organ, 

 the use of which has long remained a problem to zoologists, but which, 

 it appeared to him, must be referred to sexual relations j he alluded 

 now to the lacrymal sinus. Referring to its structure as to that of a 

 sac, opening externally by a lengthened slit, but perfectly closed 

 within, he remarked, that that organ could not possibly be in any 

 degree connected with the functions of respiration j there being no 

 aperture through it for the passage of air. Its inner surface is covered 

 by a smooth skin, with a few scattered and very short bristles, and 

 is defended by a dark-coloured and copious secretion of ceruminous 

 matter, which has a slight urinous or sexual odour. He did not_ 

 feel himself competent, he stated, to explain the precise manner in 

 which this organ is available for sexual purposes; yet he felt con- 

 vinced that such is its use, from the consideration of its relative de- 

 velopment in the several Indian Antelopes of the Society's Mena- 

 gerie. 



In the more aged of these individuals, as indeed in the adult Indian 

 Antelope generally, the large cutaneous follicle beneath the eye known 

 as the lacrymal sinus, is so prominent as to form a most striking feature 

 in the animal's physiognomy: it never appears as a simple slit, its 

 thickened edges pouting so widely as to be at all times partially 

 everted. When the animal is excited, and it is constantly highly ex- 

 citable, the eversion of the bag becomes complete, and its thick lips 

 being thrown widely back, the intervening spare is actually forced 



