486 DR. G. HERBERT FOWLER OX VARIATION [Jlllie 19, x 



.specimens of this species which show the effects of partial castration 



on secondary sexual characters, although the point is of con- 

 siderable interest; hut dogmatic and contradictory statements on 

 the matter are plentiful enough. When searching for similar 

 specimens at the College of Surgeons and the British Museum, I 

 found apparently undescrihed specimens illustrating other points ; 

 and I venture to submit these incomplete notes to the Society, 

 chiefly in the hope of directing the attention of gentlemen who 

 have herds of Fallow Deer to abnormalities in the antlers, especially 

 with reference to the condition of the generative organs. 



The earliest account of experiments on the subject which I have 

 been able to find is contained in the Introduction to an Essay 

 entitled 'The Oeconomy of Nature in Acute and Chronical Diseases 

 of the Glands,' by Eichard Russell, M.D., E.E.S. (London 1755, 

 8vo ; there is also a Latin edition of the same date). — Exper. i. 

 A " very young deer " was castrated, which never put up any horns. 

 ■ — Exper. ii. A young deer "some months older" was castrated ; he 

 had " one little velvet bud instead of a born on one side, and an 

 irregular velvet horn, about six inches long, on the other side ; 

 both were cartilaginous ; and the longest had not stability enough 

 to keep it straight, as in the Pricket Deer, but inclined horizontally." 

 — Exper. iii. A deer, " somewhat older than the second," was 

 castrated, " but not cut clean, as they term it. The event was 

 this : he had two most irregular horns that never cast their velvet; 

 and the left testicle and spermatics being least spoiled, the left 

 horn was (for that reason probably) one third longer than the 

 right." Erom the velvet hung " soft pensile glands." — Exper. iv. 

 Two old bucks were castrated at the end of February ; their horns 

 dropped off on the 21st March, or about five weeks too soon. 

 " These horns were renewed next year, and were longer than the 

 bucks of the same age, but the palms or collateral branches were 

 less and shorter ; and neither the velvet of the horns nor the 

 horns themselves were cast ever afterwards.'' A postscript states 

 that a year afterwards these horns had diminished — in the one case 

 to stumps three or four inches in length ; in the other case, the one 

 horn was about half wasted, the other not so much so, " possibly 

 because this buck might not be cut so clean as the former." 



In the Osteological Museum of the Eoyal College of Surgeons 

 is a series of antlers and frontlets, illustrating the experiments [ 

 made by Sir Philip Egerton for Sir Eichard Owen upon the effect 

 of various degrees of castration on the autlers of Fallow Deer. 

 The specimens are recorded in the Museum Catalogue of 1853, 

 and this record is repeated in the present Catalogue ; it is 

 unfortunately silent on many points of importance. The con- 

 clusions of Owen on this matter constitute the most authoritative 

 statement with which I have been able to meet, and supersede the 

 older statements of Eedi (' Experiments circa Ees diversas 

 Naturales,' Amstelodami, 1075, 12mo), which have been copied into 



1 The only experiments on Fallow Deer, except Russell's, of which I have 

 found record. 



