30 



and so compelled them to reproduce tail, feet, legs, branchiae, 

 and even head, we cannot help having abundant evidence 

 of this power. When they are hungry, and find no food 

 within reach, they do not scruple to seize one another by 

 the leg (their seizure of food is always made with great 

 violence), and wrench off, sometimes a foot, and sometimes 

 the whole limb. The sufferer does not seem much discom- 

 posed by the attack. He takes food himself as regularly as 

 usual. The damaged portions slough away, the wound 

 cicatrises, the limb sprouts, grows more or less rapidly 

 according to temperature and other circumstances, and at 

 length reproduces itself perfectly; a surprising fact when we 

 recollect that, besides its tissues and vessels, each of these 

 forelegs contains twenty-three separate bony pieces, and 

 each hind leg twenty-eight. M. Dumeril, who was anxious 

 to manufacture a perfect animal out of this tadpole, cut off 

 the branchiae four or five times in succession from the same 

 individual, and they were reproduced each time. The 

 smallest and weakest of my own specimens was a great 

 sufferer from the cruelty of his brethren, who pulled off his 

 feet over and over again, until, at last, he was reduced to a 

 fish-like state by the loss of all four limbs at once ; thus, 

 apparently, helplessly maimed, I gave him to a young 

 American lady who is studying physiology at Cambridge, 

 and under her care he has resumed his limbs in their entirety, 

 and may, I believe, be seen living in solitary state in the 

 Cavendish Museum.* 



So far I have related my personal experiences. I must, 

 however, allude briefly to an important observation, first 

 made by M. Dumeril. We saw just now that that gentleman 

 endeavoured in vain to convert an Axolotl into a perfect 

 Salamander, by repeatedly removing its branchiae. What 

 his art failed to accomplish, Nature performed for him. He 

 discovered that a specimen which had escaped his notice for 

 some time, had entirely lost its branchiae; the membraneous 



* I am informed that he has since expired owing to indulgence in 

 an inordinate meal upon frog tadpoles, after long fasting. 



