| OCR Text |
Show 1905.] IN A CASTRATED PRONGBUCK. 195 sheath is about ^ of an inch thick, and allows of but little movement between the two. The remaining portions of the composite sheath are immovably welded together both by the solidity and thickness of the central core and by the unbroken continuity of the cortical tissues on the convex side of the horn-sheath. The approximate length in inches of the sheaths (excluding the distal) is as follows:-No. 6, 2|-; nos. 5, 4, and 3, 2] ; no. 2, 2g. In the proximal sheath the length of the hollow that fits over the bony core is 1^; in the distal sheath it is lg inches. The horn that has just been described was not, I believe, shed in the ordinary way. It was picked up in the paddock adjoining that in which the Prongbuck was kept. The paddocks are separated by iron bars, and it seems probable that the horn, becoming entangled, was wrenched off by the animal in its efforts to get free. This is an explanation of its being on the wrong side of the fence, and also of the fact that the horn-core was naked and bleeding. In the case of normally-shed horn-sheaths, the core is covered with the new sheath before the old one comes away. Text-fig. 29. Section o f tlie left compound horn-sheath o f a castrated Prongbuck, slightly diagrammatic, showing the five component sheaths (1-5) and the extremity o f the central strand (A) by which the fifth sheath (5) was fixed to the tip o f the sheath left covering the horn-core. The left horn-sheath (text-fig. 29) resembles the right in essential features. It appears, however, to consist of five, instead of six, |
