210 Proceedings of the Royal Physical Society. 
in ; cut off, as they in a great measure are, by their insular 
position, and thus prevented from mixing with the deer 
over a more extended range of country. 
There appears to be no doubt that with great age the 
horns of the stag do lose their size, and return at last, it is 
said, to the simple spire or beam with the brow antler alone, 
and it has been believed that some of these horns showing 
irregularities of form may be due to great age. It is not 
improbable also that some deteriorating effect may be caused 
from the breeding in and in of a small flock of deer, though 
we know that the strongest deer are the fathers of the 
herd. It has also been supposed that these varieties in form 
might be the result of injuries received by the horn itself in 
the earlier stages of its growth ; the most probable cause, 
however, may be considered to be any injury of an exhaustive 
nature received by the stag either in the previous autumn 
or spring ; and the effect of castration in stopping or 
altogether preventing the growth of the horns is well known. 
In a work entitled " Notes on the Chase of the Wild Eed 
Deer in Devon and Somerset," by Charles Palk Collyns, 
surgeon, published in London in 1862, this subject is pretty 
fully discussed. Mr Collyns states, that from frequent 
investigations and dissections, I have come to the con- 
clusion that the appearances (of short and distorted horns) 
have been generally due to shot or slug injuring the deer 
in his testicles before his horns are shed, or during the 
growth of the new horn," or "to accident or over-exertion 
during the season preceding the shedding of the horns." 
He has also observed " the testes to have been injured on 
the same side where the defective horn appeared." 
It would therefore be an interesting addition to our know- 
ledge of this curious subject, if Captain Orde would cause 
any of the deer showing these irregularities in the size 
or shape of the horns, to be carefully examined for the traces 
of previous injuries of any kind sustained by them, in the 
region of the testes especially, or in any other part of the 
animal. 
In November 1856, 1 exhibited a curious analogous variety 
in the horns of a red deer, in which the first or brow antler 
