Kansas City daily journal. [volume] (Kansas City, Mo.) 1892-1897, 1895-01-28
TADpOLEs HIS PLAYTHlNGs.
A DOCTOR WHO AMUsEs HIMSELF
sPLICISG THEM TOGETHER.
Discoveries that May Mean Mrcs, to Science
Not Tadpolcs Aiouc-but Other
little Animals Are OPP
Grated Upon.


the public. masquerading In the stald
garb of matNr-of-fact paper read be-
fore n German Scientinc society. 1t is n
description of n series of experiments by
pr G. Born. but 1t reads like an extract
from the laboratory note book OF n med
iacval wizard.
Dr Born has been carving up living
creatures into bits and piecing the bits to-
gcther In all sorts OF ways. This, OF
course. IL easy enough. The late +. T.
Barnum was pioneer In the art when he
pleced together HIS celebrated mermaid
with monkeys body and fish's tall
Dr Born however can not only 20 him
one step better. but he makes that step
across the widest chasm in nature-the
gap that separates death from life-the
abyss between pulsating, wriggilns,
growing creature and n lump OF flesh fast
becoming putrid.
He not only pieces the bits together.
but actually makes them live and grow.
thus producing things with tails grow
ing out Of their heads. things with two
tails and no head. or with two heads and
no tail, things with two hearts and
things with no heart at all-cnough to
make the astonished beholder flee at once
to his home and sign the pledge in an
agony Of rcmorse
The creatures that Dr. Born has sue
ceeded in patching together In this mar
velous way are tadpoles and allied forms
of amphibians-frogs. toads and the like
in the laryal or undeveloped stage, when
they are half fish and half reptire
This is as far as he has gone yet, but
then he has only made start When no
gets his hand well in there Is no telling
how far he may go, and the sanguine
imagination refuses to allow its horizon
to be hemmed In by n tadpole. 1t eX-
pands far beyond the reptilia and ascends
to mammals, and even unto the human
family itself Why not?
T'1f1tDlos suph "A wonderful ability
10 heal wound and such uneaqualed en-
erEy of growth that the first hesitating,
numbering experiments are naturally made
with them. But men can heal as well as
tadpoles. and the human frame can tako
to Itself bits of foreign tissues, too-wit-
ness the wonderful surgical transplanta-
tions OF recent years,
So we can easily imagine surgeon of
the year 1000 saying to his assistant:
John, did you get that arm for old Mr..
Jones?"
NO. sir; the only suitable one offered
was at least two sizes too big, and be-
sides. the owner wants 5000 for it,
Have YOU the liver for Mrs. smith,
yes. sir; we took 1t from the man who
was executed yesterday. He was fine,
healthy fellow: no biliousness about him!
/ have 1t here now in the sterilizing So
lution.'
Very we'll; 20 out now and see If you
can find an intelligent young fellow who
ject. Old Millyuns is bound that his boy
shall take the valedictory, and he now
stands in imminent danger of being
dropped from his class
That is how it will be in the year 1000:
Just at present we have to look at DR..
Born's polly-wogs and cherish sweet hope
in our breasts.
This is how DR.. Born was led to make
these experiments: He was trying to see
how far he could carry the wonderful
a.
larval amphibians and found that when
one was cut In two the wounded surfaces
soon became covered with skin and the
pieces lived separately for eight days.
Next he made the discovery that two
pieces, connected only by a slender shred
of skin and accidentally left with the
wounded surfaces touching. had grown
completely together and We're as If they
had never been cut apart The connected
thread of skin was so small that 1t oc-
Cured to DIR. Born that 1t might have had
nothing to do with the reunion of the
pieces and hence that 1t might be possi-
bic to make bits of different creatures
grow together.
Curously enough he had the best sue
cess, not with two pieces that when put
together. would form normal tadpole-
that is, with the head of one and the tail
of another-but with two tail-pieces. The
reason of this was that the creatures
bodies are covered with fine hairs which
Keep up to-and-trO mOtlOn tnat pro-
pels them slowly forward.
Hence, two tail pieces, both trying to
move forward, would keep their wounded
surfaces pressed tightly together and so
facilitate the work of healing. Two head
pieces would in like manner try to get
apart, and a head-piece and tail-pece
would move on together without exerting
any pressure on one another; hence these
Were much more difficult subjects; in
fact, in the last case they did not succeed
at all.
All the experiments were made in water
sandths. by weight, of common salt. Fresh
water was found to have an injurious ef-
feet on the wounded surfaces and, besides,
the tadpoles develop Better in salt water.
1t apparently made no difference In what
position the pieces We're put together; they
grew Just as well when the belly of one
and the back of the other were turned In
the same direction as when they were
normally arranged.
1t was found necessary, however, to
patch the pieces together soon after the
cutting, as the skin began TO grow over the
wounded surface at once, and thus pre-
vented perfect union. Young tadpoles thus
grew together completely in twenty-four
hours, and although neither piece contained
a heart, lived for eight days
Others, in which each piece contained
heart not only grew together, but devel-
oped perceptibly, so that at the end of
week they had increased in length about
an eighth of an inch. The hearts, which
had been almost imperceptble. We're filed
with red blood and pulsated vlslbly. The
intestine, which had been a mere straight
channel, began to be conyouted, and the
characteristic green color of the frog made
its appearance.
Having found what he could do. Dr. Born
amused himself with making all kinds of,
odd and grotesque monstrositles as hisi
fancy dictated. For instance, he cut two
tadpoles nearly in two, then he bent the
halves over upon each other, as II on "a
hinge so that the wounded surfaces faced
in the same direction. Then he applied one
tadpole TO the other and caused them to
grow together, so that he had creature
composed of two whole creatures spliced
together crosswise.
Siamese-twin tadpoles are frequently
hatched--two fastened together, face to
face. These were successfully Initiated by
Dr. Born, and he also went nature one
better by producing a twin In which the
head OF one was turned towards the others
tail-a position that never occurs In the
monstrosities produced naturally.
All these experiments succeeded not only
with two individuals OF the same species,
but also with those of different species,
different genera. or even different families.
He thus produced a monstrosity that was
half frog and half toad None of these
lived to complete its metamorphosis from
the larval stage into that of the full grown
animal but there seemed to be no reason
why, with sufficient pains. they should not
be made to do so.
Lest anyone should suppose that the