The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1904-02-14
NEW LIMBS IN
PLACE OF OLD

n the many marYeIs of the animal
world there is nothing more Won
derful than the mystery Of growth
and 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 il
not necessary articles are destroyed or
lost
The replacement of lost organs IS
more common as we approach the foun-
datiOns of life, and IS almost absent
from its pinnacles and battlementS.
There is a popular idea that every part
of the human body is renewed i'm the
course OF seven years. and that the
grown man who gazes on his strong
limbs and tby means of a mirror at
his comedy and uncOmeiy face, is look
ing at a totally different person from
the child who was his infantile repre-
sentative. He was John Smith at 10,
ne is John Smith at p 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 it is
difficult to say. and not very profitable
10 discuss But we know that the body
is capable OF renewal as well as of or
binary growth. cuts and Wounds are
filled up by new flesh. growing from tbs
sides until the seams are completely
1uended. II 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
90 flow in those Of the feeble.
More commonplace srowths are ia
Uiliar % every ore. The skin Is ever
being rubbed or washed away, hair re-
quires cutting at iuconveniently short
intervals, human nails demand the scis-
sorS. the claws of cats are reset by the
aid of the drawing room furniture. and
those of the tiger 10y means of a friend
Is tree. The horns Of male deer and
in the case of the reindeer those of the
female als0-which IN some instances
weigh half q hundTedWeight-aTe
broken OF and grow again year by year.
But with these exceptions there IS
nothing IN the higher animals CORE
spending II the replacing of limbs in
the crab. III is only when we leave the
mammals and the birds that we arrive
at the miracle OF growth which the fish
ermau called "spr0uung, and which
man of science term the regeneration
al lost parts. It is at its meridian IN
the crabs and the spiders, while its
dawn must be looked for Tar below lle
nnolIusks 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 oi the
ocean into "a marine paradise, may b.
cut down by adverse circumstances, as
our garden flowers are by a northern
blast, without losing their vitality or
their power OF recuperati0n. Let but q
layer Of the original root remain at
tached 10 the rock. and they viii again
grow bodies, and crown them with bud
like fringes. which serve them for lips
and hands.
once heard jocular doctor threat
% to amputate a patient In the middle
Of his back Such a radical operation
would proba bly, have debarred the sub
iect of j. from violent athletic pursuits
for the rest Of his life. Au earthworni
thinks nothing 81 being taken of in the
middle OF the back by the spade Of an
unsuspecting or malicious gardener, but
sinpIy rests as q private patient Ior 2
month or two, and then comes out win
q brand new tail. Even the loss or the
other end does rot trouble the inteI2s, ?
ing creature, which Darwin raised trom
the status of pest ID the honorable
rank Of one Of the worlds heuefactors-