THE ANTLERS. 183 
laminz by inflammatory deposits between them, presenting to 
the view a loose and porous appearance. When in this condi- 
tion the diseased portion does not perfect its growth so as to 
dispense with the periosteum, at the time the healthy portion is 
prepared to do so, but even the portion of the velvet remaining 
on the diseased part retains a certain measure of vitality, from 
internal nutriment, when its proper supply is entirely cut off, by 
the destruction and removal of the velvet on the healthy por- 
tion below it. This is beautifully illustrated on the abnormal 
descending tine on the left antler from a Columbia deer shown 
in the illustration hereafter given. This black-tailed deer was 
killed on the dividing ridge which lies between Cottonwood Creek 
and Clear Creek, extending from Cottonwood station to Igo in 
Shasta County, California. It will be observed that a few 
inches of the outer extremity of the tine is greatly enlarged. 
At the time the deer was killed the velvet was remaining on this 
portion of the antler alone: All the rest was denuded and the 
surface well polished. After that remaining had become well 
dried, I peeled it off and found that the canals for the blood- 
vessels leading from the periosteum into the diseased bone had 
become so enlarged as to be perfectly distinct to the naked eye, 
indeed many of them were as large.asasmall pin. ‘The visible 
mouths of these canals leading to the Haversian systems within 
are exceedingly numerous. Internally the cross section of the 
diseased part of the tine presents that loose spongy appearance 
so often seen in diseased bone. 
When growing, the antler of the deer is quite pliant, and may 
be given almost any shape or direction, without apparent injury. 
Nothing is more common than to meet with antlers from all the 
species of this genus, taken from wild animals, with the beam or 
more frequently some of the tines occupying unnatural positions 
attributable to some force applied when in an immature state. 
I have never known an instance where such injury to the 
antler has produced disease. 
Once when taking a pair of black-tailed deer from a boat into 
the steamship in the Columbia River in a gale of wind, one of 
the antlers of the-buck, which was a few inches long, got crushed 
down, and yet it did not appear to become diseased from the in- 
jury. It grew on in the form of an irregular mass, shed its velvet 
at about the same time as the uninjured antler, and was cast off 
about the same time, presenting no such appearance of disease as 
in the case first described. The next year the antler grown upon 
