NOT A MYTH

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 53, Issue 3795, 14 August 1936, Page 5

NOT A MYTH

THE FABLED UNICORN. The unicorn was supposed to be a one-horned animal of peculiar power, writes the scientific correspondent of the “Manchester Guardian.” It was strong, proud, and beautiful and the protector of other animals. On account of such chivalrous qualities it was incorporated by James I. in the British coat-of-arms. Myths concerning unicorns appear in the beginning of history. In spite of confident accounts of particular examples the possible existence of unicorns has been doubted in recent centuries. There is now evidence that the unicorn myth, as with so many other myths, is not a pure invention. Dr. W. Franklin Dove, of the University of Maine, has succeeded in producing a magnificent unicorn artificially, and has described his technique in the “Scientific Monthly.” The horns of calves do not grow out of the bones of the skull but develop from buds in the flesh over the skull. As the animal grows the horns grow outwards, and at the same time grow inwards and fuse with the skull. Dr. Dove transplanted the two horn buds of a day-old male Ayrshire calf into a contiguous position on the middle of the top of the skull. As the animal grew the horns from the two contiguous buds fused together and' produced one super-horn over the middle of the skull. The animal is now over two years old. The horn is white at the base and black at the tip, as is the unicorn’s horn described by Ctesias, physician to the Court of Darius, in 398 B.C. Ctesias states that the upper part was crimson. This crimson part was supposed to purify poison, so that kings were protected by drinking from unicorn horns. Dr. Dove explains that if his calf had been female its horn would have had a red part, as this colour is a sex-linked characteristic in Ayrshire cattle. It seems as if some ancient magicians possessed some operative technique, similar in principle to Dove’s, which enabled them to produce one-horned cattle or unicorns.