1827.] 



205 



Ha! I've hit the nail; 

 Tadpoles have a tail 

 I'll run to Leicester-square, 

 Mv friends who sojourn there, 

 My worthy friend, explain us, is 

 Why have frogs bare anuses, 

 I've a friend at hand 

 Then make us understand 

 The tadpole had a tail 

 While frogs as seldom fail 

 He had a tail 'tis plain, 

 It could not cross his brain, 

 You see my sad distress 

 I've half a mind to guess 

 I have a friend, whose sight 

 He'll see whate'er is right, 

 Then give my friend aud me, 

 Tell us what to see, 

 Ha! 1 understand 

 Honest friend, your hand r 

 A way, away to the seer 

 I've such a bright idea 

 My hints when I revise, 

 Then we'll per. them as they rise, 

 I hate the labor limce 

 His tail, so bright and slimy, 

 You see each vessel's play, 

 Quick you see it say? 

 Again thsnfugit hora 

 Invisible fine aura? 

 You see beside, I'm sure, 

 A soft, smooth aperture ?f 

 And hear a crepitation, 

 'Scaped Parry's observation? 

 The tail attenuated, 

 Like nutmeg gently grated? 

 You see it fast diminish, 

 Quick quick it's time to finish ? 

 But hold, my more than brother, 

 It strikes me that another 

 Bid this anomalous, 

 Its whole eft'ect produce 

 Or should we rather say, 

 In quite another way 

 These doubts would best be met 

 Oh! could we catch the jet, 

 I'll think again of this, 

 We'll have the analysis 

 Then sketch away, unheeding 

 I'll draw up the proceeding : 

 I'll read it to the learned, 

 Will think the job well earned 

 Or if it double twenty 

 Their funds suffice in plenty, 

 A health then to the donors ! 

 Such microscopic honours 



I'll score it in my pot hooks ; 

 Frogs have but bare buttocks ! ! ! 

 I know who'il see iny drift j 

 I'll ask them fora lift. 

 It hard to raise the veil, 

 While tadpoles have a tail? 

 With a microscopic eye j 

 What we ought to spy. 

 Nobody can doubt it 

 To do as well without if. 

 And constantly employed it ; 

 I think, my friend, to void it. 

 Then teach me how to meet it ; 

 The wretches take and eat it ! 

 I can very well depend on ; 

 Be it vessel, nerve, or tendon. 

 Give us but a thought , 

 And we'll see It as we ought. 

 One word's as good as twenty 

 Verbum sapienti. 

 Summon all jour senses ; 

 Out with all your lenses ! 

 I very often fast stick j 

 A utoschediastic.* 

 Critics, let them joke us ; 

 Fix kin the focus. 

 Each pulse's rise and fall ? 

 ' YesI see it all !" 

 You see a thin and small 

 Yes I see it all !" 

 From whence these vapours roll, 

 " Oh ! yes 1 see the whole !" 

 Like what from Northern light 

 I do distinctly quite!" 

 Its substance seems to lose, 

 " Yes I see it does !" 

 Like ice before the sun ? 

 a Oh ! yes I see its gone." 

 In writing what we've seen, 

 Doubt may intervene. 

 Gas-like elimination. 

 From mechanical abrasion? 

 It performed its execution, 

 By chemical solution ? 

 By an anal}' tic trial , 

 And stop it in a phial! 

 While you collect the vapour ; 

 In my next year's paper.* 

 Who your labour is to pay j 

 Then sketch sketch away ! 

 And never doubt the ninnies 

 At the price of twenty guineas. |] 

 For paper, plates, and printing, 

 For such experimenting. 

 Again shall never sly bore 

 Bear away as you and I bore. 



, * An erudite word for which see the prospectus to Valpy's Thesaurus, 

 f Totus teres atque rotund us. Horace. 

 J Is there a mistake here ? For the Croonian Lectureship is annual not perennial. 



J " The Croonian Lecture, founded on the donation of Dame Mary Sadlier, the late relict of Dr. 

 Croone, of one-tifth of the clear rent of an estate on Lambeth-hill, in tLe possession of the College 

 of Physicians (producing to the society 3 per annum), for maintaining a lecture or discourse of 

 Jhe nature and property of local morion" [of a tadpole's tail, for instance]. The Statutes of ths 

 Royal Society of London, made in the year 1823, p. 42. 



