1875.] L. Schwendler — On a Four-homed Sheep. 187 



domestic breeds that they ought to do, and that had been taken for the 

 last fifty years, with such decided and practical results in Europe, — that 

 there was much room for the improvement of domestic animals in India 

 nobody could doubt. 



Dr. McLeod apprehended that objects were brought before this 

 learned Society not for the mere sake of exciting curiosity, but as a contribu- 

 tion to scientific knowledge or illustration of scientific doctrine. He would, 

 therefore, be glad to learn from Mr. Schwendler whether he had any explana- 

 tion to offer regarding the peculiarity which this sheep presented. Every de- 

 parture from the normal type of development must be eitber a reversion, a vari- 

 ation, or a monstrosity, and these were capable of being brought into relation 

 with similar facts. Was this sheep a reversion to some ancestral type, such as 

 the turtles and horses which Mr. Wood-Mason had spoken of, or was the dupli- 

 cation of the animal's horns an aberration of development similar to the 

 duplication of thumbs — sometimes symmetrical, sometimes asymmetrical 

 and occasionally hereditary — which we sometimes met with in the human 

 subject ? Tegumentary appendages were perhaps more liable to variation than 

 any other structure, and authentic cases were on record of horns growing from 

 the human skin — the skin of the scalp especially ; he had seen specimens of this 

 kind in museums and once removed a horn, three incbes long, from the chest 

 of a native of the district of Jessore. Excessive developments of hair on 

 the human subject belonged to the same class of phenomena. Not long ago 

 he had read in the newspapers of a hairy family in Burmah in which this pecu- 

 liarity appeared to be hereditary, and bad seen drawings of similar cases in 

 Edinburgh. Could Mr. Schwendler give any facts to show whether the 

 duplication of horns in this animal was a reversion, a variation, or a monstro- 

 sity ? 



Mr. Schwendler said that he could not answer Dr. McLeod's question. 

 He had formed no theory, since he was not sufficiently acquainted with the 

 history of the animal. His object had merely been to exhibit an interest- 

 ing and beautiful animal not easily to be met with at Calcutta, and to draw 

 attention to the desirability of breeding from it. His own belief was, that 

 it represented a local breed produced by artificial selection, on account of 

 these four-horned animals being so very handsome, and most likely also 

 to possess other superior qualities. Mr. Schwendler said it was well- 

 known that there existed a four-horned antelope in India, but did not 

 think that any reasons had been assigned for this strange duplication of 

 horns. There were undoubtedly reasons for everything nature had pro- 

 duced, but he himself could not attempt to answer such difficult questions. 

 That the four-homed sheep was not an individual accident or monstrosity 

 seemed to be however certain, since many more sheep of the same kind 

 were to be found in the same locality. 



