New-York tribune., 1918-03-18
Seeking Wisdona From the Poets

VI whether jellyfsh eat toads,
And whether Hearst has WINGS
Seeking Wisdona From the Poets
once safely embarked on serious research,
followed the true Tcutonic bent and went
hrst to the poets for guidance There en-
coCntercd an amazing lack of interest in the
marine portion of my subject; seemingly
the Jcllyflsh had never before inspired the
hosom OF man. But under the heading
Aoaos IN Familiar Quotations: Collec-
ton OF Passages, Phrases and Proverbs
Traced to Their Sources in Ancient and
Modern Literature" by John Bartlett I
1ounc two passag that amply rewarded
me- Inc first seemed positively written
Tor the occasion it is now destined to COM
mcmoratc:
Sweet arc the uses of adversitv
'h' W Wn'eh' ilke the toad ugly and vcnorlous
wears yet Il precious jewel in his head;
ana THIS our life, exempt from public b,unt
flnds tongues in trees books in the running brools
Sermons in stones, and good in everything
The other, taken from Douglas Jcrrolds
"A Charitable Man," bears wholly and OK
cluslVely, take it, on the Journalistic haro
OF our pretty little tale:
lie was so good he would pour rose-water m
toad. ~ VIZ "
Before I take UP the two chief problems
involved in the atfaire- jcllyfish, NAV not
dwell for moment on the strain of true
l''p'ng poetry carried over into the drer
reaches OF science by the writer on these
marine animals in Funk & Wagnall's Stand
ara Hncyciopedla? There is something
genuinely Keatsian in the linc-I can on]v
call it by that term of prosody-descrb;no
the adornment Of the tentacles of tho io11v7
fish: 'N'l'
Besct with myviads Of stinginy cells
BESIDE this bit of vers lbre, l must con-
Tess that such dicta as the international En-
cyclopadia furnished on the "medusa." as
the Jeliyhsh Is scientifically known. was
tame indeed: while the term mcdusa is
now generally applied to the adult stare of
any hybroid, it is particularly annlic,h1o
to our common North Atlantic Aurelia favi-
dula, of the class scyphozoa (the pronn
commonly called discophora); another pcn-
eral name is acaliph"
Do JeiIyhshes Eat Tcads?
While respecting such scholarship as
pasls Tor progress, went forward RAPIDLY
70 'nc true purpose of my investigation,
which was twofoid. To determine.
l. Whether jellyfshes eat toads and
Z. What motive Mr.. Hearst had in sem
aratlng the combatants
must confess that my authorities unon
the frst point were hardly conclusive. Pro-
lessor Edward Alfred Minchn. M. A. p p
H. s., and author OF the article on mednsa,
III the Encyclopedia Britannica. found ,n-
thorlty for the statement that the icllv6sh
eats small organisms of various kinds cs.
peclal!y crustacca." The writer on ! ellv
i.sh IN the International EncycloDndja
opened room 1or the consumption Of toads
by the broadminded statement: "Rcsido.
small animals of various classes. tho larror
jellyfshcs kill by means of nettlinc orcans
small cuttlcfiSh and true fishaS
SO much for the jellyfish side of our ar
gument take it that if one of these
beasts of prey could come upon toad-or
could surprise even a mouse or a small
puppy-it could easily cxtinguish the
spark OF life, however successful or nm
successful 1T might be in disposing of the
Il-gotteA gain, via the mcdusan dipestivc
system
But could u toad put itself in the wav
OF a jcllyish? That is the crux of the mai.
Ter. And there also the authorities w.ra
lar from clear. Funk g. Warnalls's Stand.
ara Encyclopedia spoke of the toad-arain
with that strain OF word music-as "a
shy, nocturnal animal, hiding during the
day IN dark, damp places" No mention of
water, ponds seashorc.
me international, however, stated cate
gorlcally that the Bufonidn, or toads "in
clude terrestrial, burrowing, thorouchlv
aquatic and arborcal types"
OBVIOUSLY, the only solution was to nut
the problem, in all its complexty, to New
1ork's men of science. The first an.
preached II. W. Miner, A. b., associate
curator of the department of invertebratc
zoology of the American Museum of Natural
History, exhibited the guarded conserva-
'ism one associates with youth. az can't
say definitely" he replied to my query.
since do not know tho precise circum-
stances, but it is safe to say that while a
Jcllyfsh could not attack toad--it feeds
olindly. you know--it might, Of course, seize