The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1898-06-16
Z Ora TING' INSECTS.
\ SERIES OF EXPERIMENTS
WITH LOWER TYPES.
Defects Made ArtifcialIy-Tn butterflies,
Moths, Chickens. Fish and Frogs
Monstrosities Calculated to Give One
q Sort of Physical Nightmare.

Great interest as well as curiosity
has been reused in scientific and lay
circles throughout the United States
Dy some experiments in what may be
termed the grating" Of insects re-
Gently conducted by Prof. Champion
OF Columbia university, New York,
says the London Post. Without going
so far as to say that the experiment
OF Prof. Champion makes it at all
probable that the process of grating
Will ever be made applicable to more
highly developed creatures than
gruDs, caterpillars and their winged
relatives, there appears in the mere
TACT OF the successful "grafrlng' of
these lower types promise enough to
warrant an investigation of the amaz-
ing physiological phenomena which
have rendered the operation possible.
1t is no detraction that the American
professors experiments are not al
together new. So far, indeed, as the
artificial production of insect mon
strosltles is concerned, the idea is
much older than many are aware. More
IMAM 200 years ago the German physi-
ologlst Schwammerdam, having stud
leo the metamorphoses of grubs and
caterplllars, noticed how often both
the wings and the antennae of butter
Tles were deformed when emerging
from the chrysalis condition, and,
thinking that these abnormal results
might be due to external causes, he
determined to test the matter by SUBJ
Jectlng the insects to certain experi-
ences during the period of change. So
successful was he that in nearly every
case ne contrived by artificial means
10 produce the defects he had observed
IN the emerging butterflies. It is I'M
fortunate for those interested in sucn
experiments that the means taken by
SchWammerdam to manufacture his
insect oddities were not recorded in the
Memories" published by the great
Dutch physician Boerhave, hence they
are lost to science. But the suppress
sion was probably due to the German
Psychologist himself, for he was when
young an intensely religious man-re-
llglous in the sense understood in
medieval days. He strongly held the
opinion that all monstrosities in ami
NAL life were due to mans primal error
and therefore he did not care to
stultlfy himself to a certain extent by
showing that these freaks could, with
IN certain limits, be produced artifi-
c1ally, and thus provide his ANTAGONISTS
with powerful weapon against what
was then deemed religion. But the
experiments of M. Alme Barthelemy
tof the Lycee at Jau are well known
Z to all students of that singular branch
OF physiology known as teratology.
and there is no doubt that the example,
he first set inspired the transatlantic
professor of Columbia college. II is
true that M. Barthelemy did not do
anything in the way of grating or at
tempting to graft the creatures on
whose bodies he made his investixa-
lions. But that was because he sue
ceeded IN obtaining insect freaks by
simpler means, which helped to ex-
plain the manner in which the deform-
tiles usually observed in these crea-
lures were ordinarily caused. His OK
perlments were made principally with
the grub of the Bombyx mort, pre-
sumably the ordinary deaths head
moth. BY slight compression carefully
applied in certain parts during the
continuance Of the metamorphic prog
ress M. Barthelemy succeeded in OBJ
ofr0
hunch backs and reverted antennae
Some he secured with enormous heads
and others consisting only of abdomen
and legs, with neither head nor tail.
He gave some insects double spines,
caused others to devolp an enormous
abdomen, while in yet other instances
ne suppressed the growth of needful
organs altogether, without, strange to
say, otherwise affecting the creatures.
he reduced the eyes to the size of pin
heads and at will deprived them of the
organs of sight entirely. Other French
men and Germans, too, have since the
date of M. Barthelemy's investigations.
about thirty years ago, taken up the
experiments, and the. result, it may
be worth pointing out ito English read
ers, demonstrates the soundness of the
views regarding the development Of
such lower forms of animal life as
the caterpillar and grub which were
first set forth by our distinguished
countryman Harvey, who, it may be
remembered, considered the chrysalis
as physiologically Identical with an
egg.