204 ANNUAL RECORD OF SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY. 



ous instance of this lias come to light in regard to a kind of 

 frog found in New Zealand. We can hardly imagine a frog 

 surviving and maintaining its existence in a country habitu- 

 ally parched with drought, involving the disappearance of 

 every drop of surface moisture, but it is said to be really the 

 fact that in districts often over five thousand square miles in 

 extent in the interior of New Zealand, where there is no sur- 

 face water for months, and in some instances for years, when- 

 ever rain falls in sufficient quantities to fill the water-holes, 

 they immediately swarm with frogs; this, too, when previ- 

 ously one may dig for ten or twelve feet without finding the 

 slightest moisture, much less any water, the whole ground 

 being baked dry, and without any apparent signs of animal 

 life. The problem, however, has been solved by a late writer, 

 who states that on one occasion, while making a two days' 

 journey on horseback without finding water, he became very 

 much alarmed at the prospect, and called to his counsels a 

 young native not more than ten years old, who, on learning 

 the difficulty, proceeded to examine the dry surface of the 

 water-holes, and finally detected and followed up an indis- 

 tinct and crooked mark on what had once been mud to where 

 it ceased in the shade of a small salt-bush. He then began 

 to dig with a sharp stick, and in a short time turned out a 

 ball of clay about eight inches in diameter, quite dry outside, 

 which, when broken, disclosed a frog shut up in a cavity, 

 containing, besides, more than half a pint of clear cool water. 

 With this hint the writer afterward proceeded to dig out 

 many other balls of a similar character, drinking the water 

 and eating the frogs. It is thought not improbable that, in 

 many cases, frogs may remain under such circumstances for 

 several years. -2 A, November 12, 350. 



EFFECT OX THE FROG OF THE REMOVAL OF THE BRAIN. 



Some account has appeared in the public journals of the 

 experiments of Professor Goltz, of Konigsberg, upon the func- 

 tions of the nervous system of the frog. This gentleman, 

 having removed the brain of the frog with as little effusion 

 of blood as possible, found that it would rest upon a table ex- 

 actly in its natural position, as if in perfect life, without ex- 

 hibiting the least indication of the wound which it had expe- 

 rienced, but without changing its situation of its own accord. 



