REPAIRS AND REGENERATION 167 



occasion the process of reconstruction took 

 place with the same rapidity as it had done 

 on the first. Spallanzani calculated that dur- 

 ing these three months the animal under 

 experiment had made for itself no less than 

 647 new bones, not to speak of all the muscles, 

 nerves and arteries which formed with the 

 bones in question the various parts which were 

 restored. 



Spallanzani also found that the Salamander 

 could regenerate its upper and its lower jaws 

 if these were snipped off. It is obvious, there- 

 fore, that an animal of quite high position in 

 the scale of nature may possess very remark- 

 able powers of repair. It will be noticed that 

 there is one very important difference between 

 the phenomena exhibited by the vertebrate 

 and by the invertebrate and that is that the 

 former cannot be so divided as to constitute 

 from it two complete forms. There is then 

 limitation of the powers possessed by the more 

 lowly form. On the other hand its reconstruc- 

 tive abilities are much greater than those which 

 are possessed by any mammal. The mammal 

 can heal up a wound if that wound is not of 

 so serious a character as to cause death, but 

 it cannot re-grow even a joint of a lost limb, 

 much less reproduce the entire member as the 

 Salamander or Newt can. 



