56 STORY OF THE AMPHIBIANS 



turned over it will right itself. In some of the low 

 creatures (as starfish) if a limb be cut off and laid up- 

 side down, this lone limb will right itself by the nerve 

 matter in it. All this is the so-called reflex action. 

 Perhaps in the frog the stimulation goes to the spinal 

 cord, but it can not in the starfish. 



J^ow if we hurt both sides of the frog at once, but 

 make one side more painful than the other, the head- 

 less creature moves away from the worst pain. One 

 reflex action — the stronger — overcomes another, and 

 what appears to be an intelligent act may come in as 

 the combined result of many merely reflex actions. 

 Thus we may see how with a proper arrangement of 

 these, all under the guidance of one great ganglion — 

 even one so inferior as the frog's spinal column — in- 

 telligence or mind may arise in a certain form. 



The intelligence of the amphibians is not remark- 

 able, but toads and even salamanders become quite 

 tame, and, in their indolent way, make interesting 

 j)ets, coming to he fed at a call or whistle. 



We have turned aside here to this little outline of 

 the nervous system because nowhere else in the verte- 

 brates are there so many interesting peculiarities all 



in one group. 



Kepair 



It is because, partly, of this peculiar nervous 

 arrangement that amphibians can so readily repair in- 

 juries or renew lost parts ; and doubtless for the same 

 reason their sufferings are not so great under wounds 

 as are those of more conscious or less automatic be- 

 ings. Below the amphibians, below the fishes, there 



