Evening journal., 1898-05-14
LIMITED TO INSECTS.
Grating Cnn-aot Iie Performed Upon
Higher AnicmnIs.

Higher Ani-mnIs.
Would it be possible for an impious
end-of-the-cen1ury scientist, with a
miscellaneous assortment of human be-
ings, goats, lionesses, horses, dogs and
other animals at his command. actually
to create and give life>to semblances Of
such NEUROLOGICAL anomalies as Pan,
the man with the toper's visage and
torso; Minotaur the being endowed
with bulls head and a mans body;
the beauteous mernaids the sphynx, a
woman and a lionsss conioined; the
centaur; the griffin. and the dragon2
The question arises from the fact that
Prof. Champion, of Columbus universi-
ty, has recently succeeded by the use
of his knife on living, breathing ma
ture, and then the grating process, in
producing an amazing collection of
monstrosities in the insect kingdom.
In other words, he has created two
headed butterflies, tandem butterflies,
moths with twp heads and no tails,
some with two abdomens, others with
two breasts and no backs and all i'm
aginable varieties.
The statement has been made that
Mr.. Champion r0ay be able to extend his
findings to higher animal life, and if
he succeed and were mischievously dis
posed what would prevent him from
playing pranlIs with the human, cap
ricorn, leoninennd other species? Why
could not he, for instance. go to Dun
ming, pick out likely pauper and buy
him "on the hOof," as some evil-mind-
ed persons say it is possible to do,
and then, by resorting to the stock
yards penfolds, procure a sizable bo-
vine and so weld the two beings as
to evolve the monster that once was
the terror of Cyprus? Why couldn't
he confer n boon on pedestrians in Pa
cific avenue by kidnapping Blacksmith
Beamish's pestfferous goat and unite
him with the upper portion of a we'll
formed 'levee" bum, creating thereby
a rollicl1ing but harmless Pan?
But the savants of the Chicago uni
versity say that Mr.. Champion couldn't
do this, because, they declare, it is i'm
possible TO perform the grating upon
higher forms of animal life, save as in
the case of human beings where it is
possible to implant skin upon the body
or to insert an Aalien tooth in mans
jaw.
"Thereis nothing new in Prof. Cramp-
toms experiments" said DIR. Wheeler,
of the university, recently. "They fol-
low along the lines of experiments
performed by Born and others a year
or so ago in engrafting earth worms,
salamanders and other lower forms of
life. I hardly think that Mr.. Cramp-
toms efforts will prove of any great
service to physicians, as the dispatches
state, or that the whole science of medi-
cine will be uprooted and reorganized 4"
Prof. Whitman had this to say: THE
experiments of Mr.. Champion were
made last summer substantially as
has been reported. Part of the work
was done at Woods hall laboratory and
part in New York. The larvae of moths
were sliced and joined together and the
full-grown specimens with two sets of
wings were preserved. don't think it
is known how deeply the grating af-
fects the nervous systems of the ami
mails, and I do not know of any par
ticularly important scientific results
that will come from the experiments.
The only thing that can be said about
the value of the work is that it shows
in a very clear way that individuality
is not such fixed and definite thing as
is popularly supposed. ."-Chicago
Chronicle