The Fulton County news. [volume] (McConnellsburg, Pa.) 1899-current, 1905-10-04
The Life Story
OF a FrO6.......

getber and form Jelly like masses called
spawn. Each egg, like those OF the hen
and all ether animals, contains germ
yolk. from which the living animal is
Matched, and food-yolk, the latter be.
ing simply the nourlsbment which the
living creature will absorb during the
time OF its imprisonment in the egg.
The frogs egg IS about one-sixteenth
OF an inch in diameter, and contains
food enough to sustain the young in.
mate for abouc fortnight. When he
can wriggle his way out he bears no
resemblance TO his parents, and is
called tadpole. BY means os q
sucker on the under side OF his head he
attaches himself to a weed or some
other object in the water.
In a few days a mouth with horny
jaws, but no tongue, is developed, and
digestive canal ten times as long as
his body is coiled up like q watch
spring for internal use, while his tail
lengthens and broadens into a splendid
paddle He swims about, and feeds
on tender plants and decaying veg
etable matter, for at this stage he is a
vegetarian.
And he is not like some OF those big
pretenders we know Of, who live in
the water and yet are not fish. having
to come to the surface to breathe at
mospheric air. The tadpole. like true
fish, breathes through gills-delicate,
curtain-like structures, hanging from
the gill arches, and colored red by the
hlAnh Anxryfpr oh H.. 4ot.
in water through the mouth, passes IL
into his throat, and then out Mt the gill
Sits at the side of the neck, and so
conveys life-giving oxygen TO his blood.
His heart has two chambers only, an
auricle and ventricle Qater on, when
he becomes an air-brea thing animal,
there will be two auricles and one ven
tricle).
BY this time the eyes are perfectly
formed, and the mouth is removed 10
the extremity of the head.
All this time he is only tadpole with
no limbs, but underneath the skin they
are preparing. About the end of the
third week the hind limbs appear in
the shape of two little projections on
the surface where the body is Joined
to the tail, and grow rapidly. The fore
limbs are also sproutlng, but are at
first hidden by the two folds which
form the gill coverings. In a few
weeks they push their way through
the folds and appear almost suddenly.
Towards the end of the second month
the lungs come into use, and froggy
sometimes rises to the surface and
takes in breath or two Of air, thus
for the time being becoming both
water-breather and an air-breather.
But towards the end Of the third month
q change comes over him-a change as
great as that which converts the soft
and shapeless chrysalis into the winged
butterfly. This is the great epoch in
the frogs life, and is called the meta
morphosis. Not only are his size and
shape changed, but his internal organs
undergo alteration.
First, he ceases to feed; the outer
layer Of his skin falls off, the gill.clefts
close up and the gills are absorbed. the
long tail shortens and soon completely
disappears; the limbs, particularly the
hind limbs, lengthen; the lungs are en-
larged, the digestive canal undergoes
change. and froggy is no longer a
water erbreathing, fish-like creature, but
an air-breathing land animal. In keep
ing with all these proceedings Mr.. Frog
entirely alters his system of feeding;
he is vegetarian no longer, he will In
future be n fiesh-eater, as slugs and
worms and insects will find to their
cost.
But what becomes of the long tail?
1t does not drop off, as we might per-
haps imagine. 1t is absorbed; begin
ming at the tip, it gradually shrinks
till it disappears. But though the frog
loses in one direction, he gains In an
other. All through his infancy and
youth he has been tongueless, now he
is furnished with that useful member,
though it is not fixed in the usual man
ner; its base is fastened to the front
of the lower jaw, and its apex is turned
backwards toward the throat. This
tongue is covered with a Shiny secre-
ton. and can be darted forth with
lightning-like rapidity to capture some
poor victim and convey IL straight into
the frogs throat.
The greatest interest attaches to the
frog and his transformation from the
fact that in the successive stages of
lis development he resembles the adult
form OF group Of animals lower down
in the scale Of being The frog and
his cousin, the toad, stand at the head
of the Amphibian class, being far
in advance Of their relatives, the newt
and salamander. The mature frog can
walk, run and leap on land. and still
swim well In the water: the movement
of the limbs In the latter element be-
Ing almost identical with those of a
man In n similar situation. He is also
very strong by the aid of the well
developed lower limbs and their great
muscular power some frogs can raise
themselves in the afr to twenty times
their own height. and traverse at a
bound space over fifty times the
length OF their own bodies.
Yes, though the present-day frog is
but a pygmy compared with the giant
Amphibians which roamed the land In
the far off Carboniferous Period OF the
worlds history, he is truly wonder
full little animal, and the x.rays have
haIpad ", ravaoJ tn re tha IN ryale of