178 PROFESSOR OWEN ch. vi. 



The Professor then proceeds to discuss the 

 question, * Do Leaves fall in Autumn because 

 they Die ? ' and when that question is concluded 

 he dips again into his bag and brings out a series 

 of deers' horns. ' In Richmond Park,' he con- 

 tinues, ' we have a great quantity of deer, both 

 red and fallow but chiefly the latter kind ; and 

 I go out in May, when the antlers are shed, and 

 pick up such varieties as I can find. The horns 

 of the deer consist of pieces of bone, which grow 

 out as processes of the skull. They are not like 

 the horns of sheep or our ordinary cattle : they 

 have no true horny matter about them, but are 

 wholly bone, and are not retained or " persistent." 

 I have selected from my gatherings of the horns 

 of deer, which fall every year like the leaves of 

 trees, the series I now exhibit, varying in size and 

 character and shape. These horns, or " antlers," as 

 they are properly called, are renewed, grow, and 

 develop year by year as they are shed. They 

 begin to be formed in the latter part of the month 

 of May. At the end of August they are complete, 

 and remain from August till May, more or less 

 perfect. About the middle of that month they 

 are shed. Such are the phenomena that take 

 place annually with the fallow-deer in Richmond 

 Park.' 



Specimens of horns in their various stages of 

 growth were then exhibited and their develop- 

 ment explained : ' and so we discern the provision 



