The Worthington advance. [volume] (Worthington, Minn.) 1874-1908, 1899-02-02
FROG Us WON DERFJ JI1.
From 7 polehood to Maturity Bis
Existence IS Strange.
From yegetable-Eating-F Fish with
Tail and Gills He Turns Into an e
Air Bres thing, Carniv-
Is orouA Quadruped.
rsnecial Washington Letter. /

i#SSE1 ne AlOuQtke SO1 ScleuIluC lu1OTm0-
ton, the Smithsonian institution, re-
Gently gave us some interesting infor-
nation about the formation of our
earth and considerable speculation con-
corning the length Of the life of the
world, up to date.
There is scarcely line of thought
or of investigation which cannot be
studied with profit and pleasure in
that wonderful institution, and it's Off
spring, the National museum; be-
cause here are scientific men who have
surrounded themselves with all of the
discoveries and appliances of modern
times. And back of them, ready to
pay all expenses, is the congress which
makes liberal appropriations for the
continuance Of the work.
The evolutionist can here find all
of the facts which may be required
to prove his theory; for there are
stuffed gorillas, monkeys and all
branches of the quadrumana family.
They are so arranged that one can
trace the development of the monkey
into man; and the line of demarkation
between the quadrumana and the BIZ
mana families is very strikingly porg
trayed.
Here you can also see mounted skcle-
tons of fishes, some of them so large as
to enable any doubter to believe that
1.-THE whale swallowed Jonah" By the
way, it should be understood by every
one that the Bible does not assert that
"a whale" swallowed Jonah. The He
brew is dag haggadol," which means
"a great fish, That makes all the diff
ference in the world. Whales do not
abound in the Mediterranean sea, but
sharks do; and here in the Smith
sonian there is mounted the skeleton
of. shark which indeed must have
been "a great fish," for it was big
enough to swallow a goodsized man.
Of late years all of the birds of the
world have been stuffed and mounted
in the Smithsonian building, while
nearly all Of the scientific specimens
have been set up in the National mu-
scum; and everything has been ar
ranged and indexed so that students
can be directed to any specimen Of
anything shat may be desired. This
would be great place for college boys
to finish their educations.
The psychologist has given consider
able of his time and attention to the
study of frogs, and gave an interesting
talk on that subject. He was holding
by one leg large bullfrog which he
had just captured with bit of red
flannel on a hook. He declared the
frog to be a curiosity anatomically,
having three. forearms on one side of
its body, all of full size, although the
creature was not otherwise remarka BILE
in any respect. His intention was to
dissect him for scientific purposes; and
it was explained that the frog freak
was very likely due to the fact that,
having started life as two frogs, the
bodies became drawn together and
grew together, just as the Siamese
twins grew together.
"The frog has been called the VIC
tim of SCIENCE" said the PSYCHOLOGIST.
HE is everywhere dissected for the
purpose of seeing how he can live with
out most essential organs, how his
blood circulates and how his nervous
system acts. He is selected for such
ends, not, as is commonly imagined.
because his structure is so humanlike,
but for the reason that he will endure
being chopped up to remarkable ex-
tent, and still retain life. He can get
along fairly well without his BRAIN,
swallowing food and otherwise behav-
ing as usual, in an automatic sort of
fashion. In fact, the frog will live in
definitely under such adverse cordi-
tions, as experiment has shown. If you
cut out his lungs he will not die for
long time, because he can breathe
very well through the skin. Human