1902.] OF HORNS AND ANTLERS. 211 



stage, both onto- and phylogenetically. The cup is filled with 

 lymph, some oozing-out blood-clots and a rapidly increasing mass 

 of proliferating cells which are granulating from the walls of the 

 cup. This mass is soon, within a day or two, covered over by a 

 thin netwoi'k of epidermal and connective tissue proceeding con- 

 centrically from the edges of the skin, which arises in the shape 

 of a thickened ring- wall. Large vessels, branches of the temporal 

 arteiy and facial vein, accompanied by branches of the facial and 

 trigeminal nerves, ascend in the much-thickened cutis which 

 covers the whole growth. These big vessels send only very fine 

 branches into the antler, and they soon become capillary. These 

 seem to anastomose with the tei-minal capillaries of the vessels 

 which ascend within the antlei-. Owing to this ari'angement, the 

 outer poi'tions of the antlei- receive more calcareous salts than the 

 inner parts. They are denser, more opaque, and hai'der. Ossi- 

 fication of the whole soft and spongy mass proceeds from the base 

 and periphery upwards. 



It is important to note that the preparatory process of shedding 

 follows immediately upon the time of greatest exhaustion, i. e. 

 after the I'utting-season, and that the beginning of the new 

 growth does not coincide with the awakening of sexual activity. 

 Hei'cwith harmonizes the fact that adult stags, when castrated, 

 shed their antlers within a few weeks, whereupon a new gi-owth 

 is formed, which, however, continues to grow throughout life, 

 I'esulting in abnormal, more or less monstrous antlers. 



It is assumed geneiully that the fraying of the velvet has 

 originated through fighting, that the bared portion of the antler- 

 bone became necrotic, and had therefore to be renewed &c., and 

 that the whole process of stripping, necrotising, shedding, and 

 renewing has become rhythmical — a featiire due to cumulative 

 inheritance. This may be the case. But there is another con- 

 sideration. There would be no reason why antlers and velvet 

 should not gi'ow continually, and mend or rebuild injured or lost 

 poi'tions like other parts of the body, unless there occurs a 

 diversion or stopping of the energy and supply of building-up 

 material. Such a diversion is actvially caused by the awakening 

 of the sexual glands. They are the important organs, and all 

 the energy and supply (which after all have their limit) not 

 necessary for the keeping up of the body and life of the animal 

 are concentiuted upon the generative system, while nothing can 

 be spared foi' the fui'ther gi'owth of secondai-y exuberances. 

 Therefoie the blood-pressure in the head is diminished, the supply 

 of the skin covei'ing the antler gi'adually ceases, and the velvet 

 itself becomes necrotic, from the apex downwards. 



II. Development of the Bovine " Horns." 



The bovine or antelopine "horn" is, as a rule, described as con- 

 sisting of a bony core, itself an outgrowth of the frontal bone, and 

 the horny sheath. In reality it corresponds exactly in growth 



