The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1891-05-21
NATURAL HISTORY NOTES
Information Curious and Useful
About the Peculiarities Of
Certain Animals.
How. the Poison of Toads Is Sc
!, GREETED in the Skin and
Elected.
Two Kinds of Spiders That Resort to Pro
tectivo Mimicry-Useful Elephants
-Animal Autonomy.

The Poison of Toads.-The skin of toads
and salamanders has lately been submitted
to q microseopical examination by ME-.
Schultz, who finds that there are two kinds
Of glands present in the skin of these ami
mails, viz, mucous and poisonous glands.
The former are present all over the body,
the latter are confined to the back of the
body and limbs and the ear region behind
the eyes, and in the salamandsr are present
at the angle Of the jaw. The poison glands
are larger than the mucous glands in the
salamander, are oval and have a dark gran
ular appearance. due to strongly retroactive
drops of poison, a good reagent for which
il copper hamatoxylin. Tn poison is Sc
GREETED by epithelial, 9slls lining the glands,
and, when the USmal is stimulated
electrically, it il exuded slowly in
drops by the toad, but discharged in a fine
jet, sometimes to the distance of a foot or
more, by the Salamanca. The ana sthetic
action of the poison of the toad and the uss
to which it is put in medicine by the Chin
csc have already been pointed out.
Protective Mimicry in Spiders.-In the
journal of the Elisha Mitchell society, MIR. |
Atkinson calls attention to two new cases
Of protective mimicry in spiders. A cyrta-
racine takes shelter in summer and autumn
under leaves, where it has absolutely the
aspect of a small u~nivalve mollusk which is
extremely abundant and which often fixes
itself in an analogous position. The second
example is found in q small spider. thomi-
sus aleatorlus, which is remarkable for the
length of its fore legs, the hind
ones being. on the contrary, very
short. This spider, which lives upon
grasses. ascends the culm, stops suddenly
and disappears from sight. 1t %sutfices to
fasten itself to the spike by its hind legs,
and to bring together it's fore legs. ey-
tended, snd forming an angle with the
culm, in such y way as to make itself
nearly undistingulshable from the spike
lets.
Tho Usefulness Of the Elephant.-In
modern times, We have only to look
to India to be convinced of the great USE
fulness Of the elephant. To the agricult ur-
list, who as S him before his wagon or his
plow, he is indispensable, and for the trans
portation of heavy articles he has no rival.
We $50 him carrying immense tree trunks
out of the Indian forest, snd by his
indsfatigahle industry, in picking up
and carrying off large stones, aiding
vays. For labor of this kind a coolie re-
Ceives from four to eight annas, while five
and six rupees are paid for the daily work
of IN elephant. From this fact We con-
iuO tAit Citc II iJidiIt performs llS WORK
of from twelve to twenty-five coolics. From
the record OF the British expedition against
King Theodore, OF Abvssinia. in 1868, we
learn that fourty-four elephants we're
shipped from Bombay for use in the cam
paign. Each animal was in charge Of two
men. OF this number, i've s~uccumbsd dur T..
ing the campaign. The remaining thirty :
nine, rendered valuable services, being in A.
trusted with the transportation, through a =
mountainous country. of cannon, ammuni ii
HI c7 rtJa y Nraa @~-- -
difficult to procure proper food for them. w
and az it was often necessary to tray III
erss great distances to reach the water n
ing places, the death of the five animals is ~ ~
ascribed to these hsrdships. Although ele- ~
plants move slowly through a mountainous ~
country and soon become footsore, they "
performed their task with admirable faith 10
fdlness. Without them it would have been ~
necessary to await the building Of wagon IL
roads. al
The Phenomenon OF Autotomv in Cor
tain Animals.-Mr. Fredwicq, of Lieee. has
established the fact that the am p~utatiou OF lie
the claws IN the crab is a reflex phenome- T.
non with which the will of the animal has =
nothing to do, and which is always brought W "
about by an excitation affecting one of the "
artleulations OF the limb sacrificed. He !,
has shown, too. that lizards suspended by g.
sne tan never succeed in breaking il, if ~
bruislng OF this organ be carefully
avoided. lie concludes therefrom that. in
oAocsolhy i again u9DSIlQeDt
upon a rehex act, and he places n
IN this category all the
cases of mutilation, apparently
voluntary, that are presented by insects, al
worms.eehlnoderms, etc. At a recent session 81
OF the French Academy of Sciences, Mr. Q
Charles Contejean gave an account of some tl
experiments that he had just made upon &c
the grasshoppsf and lizard, and that per di
NIT him TO bring new proofs forward to the
support Of this opinion. He has found W
among other facts: C) That autotomy pt
cannot be induced in gr~asshoppers ana in v
lizards enfeebled by long fasting; co that n
lizards artifcially chilled can no longsr
break OF their tails; 80 that such break W
age Is SO much the more easy and more p
rapid, on the contrary, in proportion AS the
animal is more active; (4) that in tbs liz
ara, as In the grasshopper, electric excita-
ton 10 that that gives most success; 90
that autotomy is more easily induced in a
oecapltated lizard than in an intact animal.
the moderatlng action e1erted by the en- =,
csphalus being suppressed. i