years afterwards.

"If," says Hunter, "there are such deviations as of twins being perfect
male and female, why should there not be, on the other hand, an
hermaphrodite, produced singly, as in other animals? I had the
examination of one which seemed, upon the strictest inquiry, to have
been a single calf; and I am the more inclined to think this true, from
having found a number of hermaphrodites among black cattle, without the
circumstance of their birth being ascertained."

If Hunter had carried this reasoning a little further, he might have
asked,--Why should there not be a Free Martin, or hermaphrodite,
produced in the case of twins, when they are both apparently males, or
both apparently females? Had he done this, he would not, probably, have
made the following observation: "I need hardly observe, that if a cow
has twins, and they are both bull-calves, they are in every respect
perfect bulls; or if they are both cow-calves, they are perfect cows."
What is this but saying that a bull-calf is a bull-calf, and a cow-calf
is a cow-calf? For a Free Martin, or hermaphrodite, is not, in any case,
either a bull or a cow.

There does not appear to be anything known of the peculiar circumstances
under which, what is termed a Free Martin is produced.

[Illustration: Skull of Domestic Ox.]

The most general observation that can be made on the subject appears to
be, that cows sometimes produce calves, which, by reason of their
imperfectly developed generative system, are incapable of procreating.

THE SHORT-NOSED OX.

[Illustration: Skull of short-nosed Ox of the Pampas.]

The common Ox, originally taken over to America by the early Spanish
settlers, now runs wild in immense herds on the Pampas, where it is
hunted and slain for its hide. Some idea may be formed of the immensity
of these herds, from the circumstance that nearly a million of hides are
annually exported from Buenos Ayres and Monte Video to Europe.

Some of the herds in these wild regions have undergone a most singular
modification of the cranium, consisting in a shortening of the nasal
bones, together with the superior and inferior maxillaries. There is a
skull of this variety in the Museum of the College of Surgeons, of which
the above is a sketch.

ON THE UTILITY OF THE OX TRIBE TO MANKIND.

How eminently serviceable to man these animals are, is shown in the
following table, in which are set forth the most important uses to which
their various