NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 
421 
but this kind of horn would have been much too heavy for the 
cow's convenient use. What is to be done ? Why, hollow out 
the centre of the horn, of course ; but stay — this will not do, 
because how is the horn to be supjDlied with blood-vessels? — 
in fact, how is it to grow ? Let us see how it is done by the 
Great Designer. Cut the horn right across with a saw, and you 
will find inside another horn, only made of bone (see engraving). 
If the section is made about one-third of the way down tlie length 
of the horn, you will be able to pick out a piece of bone in the 
shape of a cone, on which, or rather round which, the horn 
proper has shaped itself. This bone fits the cavity with the 
greatest accuracy ; it is as light as the thinnest paper, and yet as 
sr,< TIOX i)K A cow's IfoKN 
Strong as a cone of tin. It is"everywhere perforated with holes 
which in life contained the nerves, the veins, and arteries, and we 
know a cow has all these in her horns ; nerves, proved by the fact 
that cows do not like their horns touched, and that they can 
scratch a fly off their hides with the tip of the horn ; arteries 
and veins, proved by the fact that a horn, when broken, will 
bleed, and that the horn of a living cow feels quite warm when 
held in the hand, besides which the nerves and arteries form a 
union between the internal core of bone and the external 
covering of horn proper. 
If we now cut the rest of the horn into sections, we shall fiiid 
that the inside of the bony part is really hollov/, })ut that very 
