Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1903-11-26
MIRACLE OF GROWTH
THE WAY NATURE SUPPLIES LOST
ORGANS
Human System Renewed Every Seven
Years, but in the Animal World
Organs Lost Can Be Regrown.

mystery OF growth ana the lavish way In
| which nature not only supplies heads and
| eyes. legs and tails. but also supplementary
| members to take their place when those
useful II not necessary articles are destroy
| ed or lost.
common as we approach the foundations Of
life. and Is almost absent from It's pinnacles
and battlements. There Is a popular idea
| that every part of the human body Is re-
| newed Ia the course Of seven years. and
I that the grown man who gazes his
| strong limbs, and Cby means of a mirror at
| his comedy or uncomely face, is looking at
| a totally different person from the child
| who was his infantile representative. He
| was John Smith at ten. he is John Smith at
| twenty-five, and yet every particle has
| changed; he is another John and another
Smith-the same. yet not the same.
| Commonplace Growths.
| How much of this theory Is true 1t is diff
cult to say, and not very profitable to dis
| cUss. But we know that the body is capable
| of renewal. well as of ordinary growth
| Cuts and wounds filled up by new flesh.
| growing from the sides until the seams are
| completely mended: 1t is possible to take
| skin from one persons healthy forehead
and to graft 1t upon another persons nose.
| and blood, 1t is believed may be drawn
| from the veins of the robust and made to
| flow in those of the feeble
| More commonplace growths familiar
| to every one. The skin is ever being rubbed
| or washed away, hair requires cutting at in
| conveniently short intervals human nails
| demand the scissors. the claws of cats are
| reset by the aid of the dra wing room furni-
| ture. and those of the tiger by means of a
friendly tree. The horns of male deer, and
| in the case of the reindeer those of the fe-
| male alSo-which in some instances weigh
| halr hundredweight-are broken off and
grow again year by year.
But with these exceptions there is MOTH
| Ing In the higher animals corresponding
| to the replacing of limbs in the crab. 1t
| is only when We leave the mammals and
| growth which the fisherman called
| "sprouting," and which men of science
term the regeneration of the lost parts.
1t is at it's meridian in the crabs and
! spiders, while it's dawn must be looked
| for far below the mollusks and the worms
Man, so to speak, only basks in the rays OF
| the setting sun.
Lost Members Replaced.
| Sea anemones, which with their green,
| pink, cream, blue and crimson floral
beauty turn the shores of the ocean into
| a marine paradise, may be cut down by
| adverse circumstances, as our garden flow
| ers are by a northern blast, without los
| ing their vitality or their power of recu-
| peration. Let but a layer of the original
| root remain attached to the rock and they
| will again grow bodies, and crown them
! with bud-like fringes. which serve them
| for lips and hands.
I once heard jocular doctor threaten
| to amputate a patient in the middle of his
| back. Such a radical operation would
| probably have declared the subject of it
from violent athletic pursuits for the rest
| of his life. An earthworm thinks nothing
of being taken off in the middle of the
| back by the spade of an unsuspecting or
malicious gardener. but simply rests as
| 80
then comes out with a brand-new tail.
Even the loss of the other end does not
| trouble the interesting creature. which
Darwin raised from the status of pest
| to the honorable rank of one of the world s
| benefactors.
Most people lose their heads. metaphor
| cally, at times, but when those ornamental
appendages are literally off, no fresh
| heads take their place. A worm, on the
contrary, has been known to grow new
| brain, as well as the more humdrum but
useful mouth and throat, in the course
| of a couple of months.
New Eyes Developed.
That mixed multitude" Of animals
classed together by naturalists as mol
| lusks, which include the lie-abed oyster
and the wide-awake cuttlefish, contains al
| so the snail, far-famed for its marvellous
speed. its habit of evading the ground
| landlord by carrying it's house on Its
shoulders and for it's ability to open new
eyes should the originals De permanently
| darkened. The eyes. as Is well known. are
carried at the ends Of two horns and can
be pulled in or thrust out with more than
mechanical ease and precision. n the eyes
are lost by any accident, the lire Whlch
pervades the creature, beginning from the
mere stumps builds up the optic nerves
fresh furnishes them with appropriate
cases. and places accurately constructed
| lenses at the ends ..s
In the case of human being who mas
lost his ewes the ophthalmfst has nothing
more practical to do than to send IN MS DILL
and the optician is reduced to the construc-
! ton of glass eyes, or some otner app,,an au
| TO hide the deformity; whereas the snail
| treated in the ophthalmic hospital OF nature
grows new eyes and goes merrfly out Sc
dately to his revels on a tender cappage
| leaf under the moon.
| members. although they are frequently
found minus foot or one OF their antehhae.
This is probably due to the fact that most
insects emerge suddenly into the matuSe
| form, when growth practically ceases, ana
IT Is in the immature stage that uncommon
growth is most marked.
Two insects, however which grow from
larvae to perfect individuals without any
great change of form, are able to replace
lost antennae or legs. Earwigs begin Ire
with antennae of eight joints each, ana py
subdivision increase the joints TO iourteen'
The antennae are brittle, and joints ire
ouentIy break of, but are readily replaced.
the disturbance arising from the fracture
often producing variation from the usual
number.
Extravaganza in Limbs.
Spiders ana crabs, which are near rela-
tons, are able, after series Of mouths, to
replace limbs which have disappeared IN
battle. 1t is somewhat startling on the
morrow after shutting up in a box dark
spider with seven legs to find two spiders,
one dark and the other light, one with eight
legs and the other with seven, the captive
having changed his clothes and grown q
new leg during the hours of darkness. Grabs
are warlike. and when two or three enter
| the same crabpot are apt to destroy one an
others limbs in way which to less richly
endowed races seems extravagant. Fisher
men cannot afford to throw them back into
the sea, but they often render first aid.
Thrusting a finger into the wound Of the
mangled limb. they irritate the owner, who
thereupon jerks Off the paw" leaving
neat film at the end of the stump. which
! prevents any further loss of blood. Crabs
are more excitable than their appearance
would suggest. and 1T Is firmly believed by
| the fishermen that when they are confined
| in the store pots in shallow water a thun-
derstorm will bring about a wholesale kick
l Of bog mfr al 70 he