FROEBEL SYSTEM 



Froebel Union, which issues cer- 

 tificates to teachers of children 

 under 14. To obtain these cer- 

 tificates, which are recognized by 

 the board of education, about 

 two years' training is required, 

 colleges for which are found in 

 most large educational centres in 

 the United Kingdom. 



Froebel System. Name given 

 to the theory or plan of children's 

 education enunciated by Friedrich 

 Froebel (q.v.). Convinced of the 

 essential unity of all things 

 human, natural, and divine, Froe- 

 bel held up as the ideal of educa- 

 tion the leading of man to a full 

 consciousness of this unity and the 

 teaching of the ways to attaining 

 it. Like Heinrich Pestalozzi (q.v.), 

 he believed that children should 

 be allowed to develop naturally, 

 in happy and harmonious sur- 

 roundings, and with trained guides 

 and helpers to safeguard the 

 natural process. His system lays 

 great stress on the value of play, 

 which is regarded as a spiritual 

 activity, and on the educational 

 value of giving a free hand to the 

 instinctive sense of rhythm and 

 the natural creativeness of the 

 child mind. 



The main part of Froebel's 

 theories was put into practice in 

 the kindergarten schools, but 

 the underlying doctrines are meant 

 for all stages of education. In the 

 kindergartens the child's senses are 

 developed by such means as clay- 

 modelling, paper-folding, work with 

 colour brushes, mat-plaiting, bead- 

 threading, etc., and the observation 

 and care of natural objects, animals, 

 flowers, etc., help to encourage his 

 finer instincts. See Education ; 

 Kindergarten ; Montessori Method. 



Frog. Smooth -skinned mem- 

 ber of the order Ecaudata (tail- 

 less), of the class Batrachia. This 

 order includes all the frogs and 

 toads, numbering more than 1,000 

 species, which are distinguished 

 from newts and salamanders by the 

 absence of a tail in the adult stage. 

 The name frog is restricted to the 

 family Ranidae, of which nearly 

 200 species are known. The bony 

 structure of all the frogs is pe- 

 culiar in having the hinder half 

 of the vertebral column modified 

 into a simple jointless bone ; while 

 the two bones usually found in the 

 fore arm and lower leg of verte- 

 brates are fused together. They 

 possess tongues whose base is in 

 the front of the mouth ; and have 

 teeth in the upper jaw and palate 

 only. T he fore feet are not we bbed ; 

 the hind ones partially webbed. 



Frogs are found in all parts of 

 the world, except in New Zealand, 

 Papua, the extreme S. of South 

 America, and the frozen regions. As 



3357 



Frog. Bottom, the edible variety, 



Rana esculenta. Top, cpipmon frog, 



R. temporaria 



they can only live in damp places, 

 they are absent from deserts and the 

 higher ranges of the mountains. 



Like all batrachians, frogs pass 

 through a series of metamorphoses. 

 The eggs are deposited in a jelly- 

 like mass in fresh water, and hatch 

 out as tadpoles, consisting of an 

 oval body and a long tail. During 

 this stage they breathe by means of 

 gills. The tail and gills are gradu- 

 ally absorbed, and at the same 

 time the four limbs make their ap- 

 pearance. At the completion of 

 this stage they leave the water and 

 take to a terrestrial life, breathing 

 air by means of lungs. The air is 

 taken in by a kind of swallowing 

 action, and if the mouth is kept 

 open for any length of time the 

 animal will die by suffocation, 

 as it cannot inhale apart from the 

 action of the mouth, owing to the 

 absence of ribs. The food con- 

 sists of insects and slugs, which are 

 seized by thrusting out the long, 

 sticky tongue. Frogs are therefore- 

 valuable to the gardener and 

 should never be destroyed. The 

 winter months are passed in a state 

 of hibernation, usually in the mud 

 of ponds, but occasionally in holes 

 and crevices. 



Great Britain possesses two spe 

 cies of frogs, of which the common 

 frog (Rana temporaria) is found 

 almost everywhere. The edible 

 frog (R. esculenta) is found mainly 

 in the eastern counties, and is dis- 

 tinguished from the commoner spe- 

 cies by its usually larger size and 

 more mottled appearance, especi- 



FROGBIT 



ally on the thighs. There is a dis- 

 tinct fold along each side of the 

 body, and the males have a con- 

 spicuous round sac on either side 

 of the head, which is disUiulnl 

 when croaking. On the Continent 

 and in N. America the edible frog in 

 often used for the table, the flesh 

 of the thighs resembling that of a 

 very young chicken ; but it i 

 rarely eaten in Great Britain. See 

 Animal; Embryology, illus. 



Frog. In engineering, two short 

 lengths of rail spliced together and 

 forming part of a railway crossing. 



Frog used in engineering as part of 

 a railway crossing 



A wrecking frog is a device with one 

 end raised to form an inclined 

 plane by which derailed rolling 

 stock can be replaced on the track. 

 The frog is laid alongside the rail 

 with the lower end towards a wheel 

 uf the derailed vehicle ; by pulling 

 the latter the wheel mounts the 

 frog, which guides it on to the rail. 

 It is also known as a railway ramp. 

 (See Railways.) The term is also 

 applied to part of a horse's hoof, 

 and to that part of a soldier's 

 equipment which carries the sword 

 or bayonet. 



Frogbit (Hydrochuris morsus- 

 ranae). Floating aquatic herb, of 

 the natural order Hydrocharideae. 

 A native of Europe and N. Asia, it 

 has long-stalked, kidney-shaped 

 leaves, reddish beneath ; and thrce- 

 petalled white flowers. It sends out 

 runners which produce new plants, 

 and in autumn bulbs which sink 

 to the bottom of the ponds and 

 ditches in which it lives, where they 

 pass the winter in the mud. In 

 spring they rise to the surface, and 

 put out leaves. The male flowers 

 are in clusters of two or three ; the 

 females solitary. 



Bulbs rising to the surface, 

 developed into a plant with 

 four leaves 



