Shepherdstown register. [volume] (Shepherdstown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1849-1955, 1905-02-02
Nature a Kind Mother.

When tiny lizard has to scamper
for his life in searcE of a crack in the
rock, he often has "so close a call
that his pursuer snaps off his tail, just
as he whisks into safety. A loss like
this would kill most larger animals,
but not the little lizard, says writer
in St. Nicholas He simply waits
round, waits quietly until a new tail
grows, and then is as well off as be-
fore, except that the new tail has a
flexible rod of cartilage where the old
one had backbone
If an earthworm happens to be re-
firing to his hole when robin Is out
looking for breakfast, there is apt to
be lively tug Of war between the
eater and the breakfast. Not infre-
quently the bird gets the tail end Of
the worm, while the other half crawls
away into safety. Not even a lizard
could survive such treatment as this,
but the earthworm is, in ability to re-
cover from injuries, almost as much
superior to the lizard as the lizard is
to us. He grows new half body to
replace the one which has been de-
voured, and seems to mind his loss no
more than a boy minds having his
hair cut.
There are, besides, some snail-hke
water-worms which quite outdo the
earth-worm in bearing up against mis-
fortune. If one of these chances to
lose his entire head, in week or So
sometimes in only four or FIVE days
he grows new one, brain, eyes, and
all and is as we'll off as ever. Even
if a hungry fish gets two bites, so that
he loses both head and tail, the worm
can patch himself out with new mem.
bers and go about his business as be-
fore. They have even been known to
get divided into two pieces about
equal in size, and each piece grow a
new half body, SO that there were two
entire worms in place of one.
After this it will easily be guessed
that if the head end of the worm hap
pens to be split half way down he
will grow two new sides and become
Y-shaped with two heads. Or if the
tail end is split new sides grow. and
a two-talled worm is made. Some
times one or two new heads develop
close behind the old one in the angle
of the Y. Indeed, the little creature
seem to have sort of mania for max
ing new heads and tails, wherever he
fluids a chance. If, therefore, the
worm, after receiving several wounds,
manages to escape with his life from
the cuts which happen to open for
ward, little heads9row out, and from
those opening backward little tails
no doubt greatly to his embarrass-
ment.
But what of the cutoff heads and
tails? Do they make new bodies and
become whole animals again? Not
usually. The severed head seems to
become confused, so that it does not
seem to know what to do. If it lives
it is most apt to produce another head
like itself, and change into two heads
placed SO that they look in opposite
directions. So, too, the severed tail,
equally foolish, doubles itself and be-
comes two useless tails, growing end
to end.
But isn't this really quite impossi-
BILE? A head or tail or even half
body cannot get food. If it cannot
eat it cannot grow; and that is all
there is about it. Well, it is true
that a fragment cannot eat. But still
it can make a new part out Of its own
tissue. So the animal keeps getting
smaller as it gets more nearly COM
plete, until, when the new part is fn-
ished, the whole body may be no
more than the tenth part Of its proper
size. The reconstructed animals are,
therefore, forced to begin life over
again like young worms. In time,
however, they grow up to full size.
When a head end makes a new head
instead of a tail, or a tail makes a
new tail instead of a head, the little
creatures must necessarily waste away
and die.
Another Case Of Rheumatism Cured by