Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1913-01-04
SCIENCE CREATES MONSTERS.
Makes Legs Grow Where Eyes Should
BE.

Makes Legs Grow Where Eyes Should
BE.
While biology, or the science Of life
! is one of the most complex of all
studies, there are branches that afford
both wonder and amusement for the
students and also fer the scientists.
And yet these experiments seemingly
foolish, are not made with the hopes of
bringing about important discoveries.
Regeneration" says Henri Coupin
is CoSmo. rs one Of the methods most
seductive to biologists. 1T consists
simply IN cutting in two an organ or
even a whole animal. and waiting to
see what happens With the simplest
animals up TO the cold-blooded verte-
brates. the method is at the disposal
of any one and gives very interesting.
often unexpected, results; thus we may
see 4 foot grow out where there was
IN eye, ITO tails appear where there
was only one an Isolated arm change
into a complete Individual, q wounded
lndiNidual put forth n fprout from the
wound and fso" on. With protoZoans
the thing is moreItlifh&utt and special
skill is Ifecessaryatto cut into two or
three parts q erestiiresinVisible to the
naked eye With plants the STUDY of
REGENERATION is much easier but zthe
results are slight. But, ON the other
hand we have here tha best material
for the study of grating, while ami
mails are worth little for this purpose,
except tadpoles, which may be easily
stuck together"
I'VE NAV see an isolated arm change
into a complete individual" says NJ.
Coupin. This sounds more like a mir
acle, or an impossibility, than any
thing else. and yet it is quite within the
bounds of truth. As one example of
how this can be done-has been done,
il Tact It's the common starfish.
Biologists nave removed one of the
points" or arms of q starfish, nurtured
it carefully. and watched it grow from
4 single point. or less than fifth
of the whole. into complete and per-
feet starfish
The making of monsters in this
manner is called fteratogeny." Hens
eggs have even been used. Before
putting the hens eggs into an incu-
bator,'' writes NJ. Coupin, cor even
during their incubation they are SUBJ
jected to treatment of various kinds;
diminished; they are shaken,1 with
more or less energy; they are pierced
aseptically: they are illuminated with
eolered lights; they are subjected to
unaeeustomed radiations such as the
X-rays and the ultra violet rays. they
are electrified; they are exposed to
more or less delterious vapors; they
are injected with nicrohian cultures
or toxins; III a word. it is sought to
disturb their method of development
with variety of agents limited only
by the eyperimenter' Imagination.
When taken from the incubator, or
even in the eggs-for it often happens
that their development is arrested by
such abnormal conaitions-the chicks
or their embryos present divers unex-
peeted characteristics, the study of
which leads us 10 draw various con-
illusions. We may also give attention
although this is less easy--to the eggs
of inferior organisms, mollusks OF
WORMS for example. At the moment
when augmentation of the egg IS TAX
ing place, one or two Of the cells are
pricked adroitly. Sometimes nothing
happens but sometimes monsters
are produced deprived of one or several
parts.
Plants also lend themselves web to
the study of teretoge1y UnfortunatelylI
hitherto embryos have not yet been ,ex-
nerinented on-only developed plants.
Either stems are crushed or some point
is burned. or they are artificially in
fected with fungi or insect parasites.
Some botanists assert that we may
thus obtain suddenly--by mutation
new species, susceptible of indefinite
reproduction with the newly acquired
characters; but this conclusion is at
present the subject of a violent contro-
versy
We may also study the influence of
the environment-that is to say. we
may see how living beings vary with a
change of the medium when they live
normally. The plants of the plain are
taken to the mountain tops; those of
the hills are brought down TO the plain.
Aquatic plants are habituated to COM
parative dryness; sea creatures are
taken to live in brackish or fresh water
The vital semblance of living beings is
disturbed by changing the color of the
light that battles them, the heat that
warns them, the pressures to which
their organism is adapted, the nourish-
ment that they naturally INCEST, and
we see what result all these factors
have not only on the individual itself
on its sex, for instance-but also on its
descendants, which may not be so cas-
lily influenced.
ITO act in the laws of heredity the
best method yet discovered is hybridi-
zation-that is to say. the fertilization
of one species by another With ami
mails the field of experimentation is
much more restricted than with plants.
Here we have a series of yet OBJ
scure laws on which Menders law has
thrown q certain degree of light al
though we should not allow ourselves
to be hypnotized by this fact, for there
are others.
''All this, of course. is very interest
ING and ii is easy to see that the key
stone Of the arch in general biology is
in fact the study of reproduction. In