The San Francisco call., 1898-01-28
SUCCESSFUL
 GRAPHING
 OF INSECTS Professor Champion Reaches Strange
 Results. Science Able to Produce Some Most Peculiar
 Monstrosities.
Living Things Carved in h. fancy and Crown Into
 Fantastic Shapes.
FREEZING IN THE PROCESS.
"John Smith, the Bug Man." Hints of Greater Experiments in the Higher
 Animal Kingdom.
Special Dispatch to The Call.

special Dispatch 70 The Call
 NEW YORK, Jan. 27.-Prcfessor J. B. Smith, entomologist in the New Jer- sey State Experimental Station in New Brunswick, who read a paper on the subject of bug grating at a meeting of the. New Jersey MicroscCpical Society last Monday evening, demonstrated that half of an insect could be graft ed on the half of another of an en- tirely different species.
 When seen to-day in his combined museum and laboratory in New Bruns- wick he expressed some regret that his paper had attained publicity beyond the little circle for which it was in- tended. He seemed fearful of laying himself open to a charge of stealing another mans thunder. Whatever credit could be claimed for the discov- cry. he said, was due to Professor Crampton of the American Society of Naturalists. who had made experi- ments at Woods Holl, Mass, last sum- mer. But still Professor Smith was thoroughly equipped to discuss the matter. He had seen Professor Cramp- tons specimens, and explained the mo- dus operandi. Professor Smith is thor oughly familiar with the insect world; in fact, he is known in New Bruns- wick as John Smith, bug man." a so-
 
 the least.
 Tt is perfectly true that insects can be grafted and live" he said. My first intimation of such discovery was during convention of naturalists' so- cieties in Ithaca, N. T.. during Christi mas week. Professor Crampton read a paper called Some Grating EXperi- ments upon Lapidoptera,' and illus trated it with specimens which he had operated upon; there must have been fifty or sixty of them. Some had been grafted in such way as to have two heads and no tails. Others had two tails and no heads Still others were two perfectly formed insects, welded together like Siamese twins, back to back and belly to belly. The profes- scr then showed how it was done. Co., ing to a little glass case heated by warm air, and which is really an in- sect incubator. he selected a couple of cocoOns. The experiments, he told me, must be made with pupae when in- sects are still in the embryonic state of organization from caterpillar to moth. With sharp knife he split the cocoons, disclosing a couple of wrig- gling pupae, which looked like grub worms.
 Now" he explained. Professor Crampton's plan is to partially freeze them that they shall be congested and thus prevent the flow of blood. He f would cut the heads off these two fel- lows, graft the bodies together with paratiine wax, and they would grow together. They might develop into moths, differing entirely from each oth- CT in variety and size, but they would develop into headless monstrosity just the same"
 Professor Smith, when asked if, in his opinion, the same results could be ob- tained with animals of a higher order, said: "I should not like to go on rec ord as making any statement in regard to that, but the fact remains that many things are regarded as impossible sim ply because they have never been tried. The grating of insects was never at tempted until Professor Champion took it up, and it remains to be seen what can be accomplished in the higher anil mal kingdom"
 Henry F. Crampton, Jr., an instruct or in biology in Columbia University, who has achieved interesting results from experimenting in bug grating, was seen in his laboratory to-da. and explained the value of his disI--eries to the scientific world.
 T do net claim any originality in these experiments" said Professor Crampton. "I have simply worked out the theories of eminent scientists. Grating in plant life has long been known, but 1t has never been tried be- fore in insect life. I made the experi- inents and evolved these strange mon stroslties in making researches in the power of heredity. I have also made several experiments in the transfusion or the blood of insects in embryonic stages and thus produced strange com binations."
 Professor Champion produced sever al small jars containing results of his experiments in bug grating. Among them was a tandem moth which had been formed by cutting the head off of one cocoon and welding the decapitat- ed pupa to another pupa from which the tail had been cut. The result was long moth body with two sets of wings.
 Tt would have lived" said Champion, regretfully, If I had not dropped 1t from a table and burst its body. Even then l patched up the wound with a bit of Japanese paper, and it lived four or five days after the accident
 Another interesting freak which he showed was the Siamese twin butter fly, which was formed by welding two butterfly cocoons side by side with par affine wax after cutting them open. They were perfectly formed, and were joined by broad ligament.
 T am now making experiments in drawing the blood of one cocoon and infusing into 1t the blood of another. This affects the wing and body colcr- ings, and adds greatly to the study of heredity. If these experiments can be carried onin insects they may be carried on in higher forms of life and reveal much that is as yet unknown in study of the cell, or the very essence of life. l made these experiments years ago." concluded Crampton, "and I have now some four or five hundred pupae wait ing to hatch out. Much of them die. however, in pupae stages. am pre- pairing a treatise on my experiments which will be published soon."