SEPTEMBER SUNSHINE. 251 



Let me here add reference to a kindly criticism of the 

 same remark, published some months after the above 

 was written. My critical friend says the assertion of 

 the undesirability of tails, so far as salamanders are con- 

 cerned, is unsubstantiated. If he will bear in mind that 

 I meant only the terrestrial species, I feel sure that the 

 substantiation given above will satisfy him. I have re- 

 cently repeated some of my experiments, and it is a 

 lucky salamander that has its tail reduced to a minimum. 



This, too, is a fitting opportunity to refer to the sub- 

 ject of regrowth of lost limbs and other portions of the 

 body of a salamander. I have not found such repro- 

 duction to occur with the regularity that is claimed. 

 Certainly, in the case of amputated tails, it is often more 

 than a year before this regrowth occurs. I find it stated 

 in Packard's "Zoology" that "experiments made in Eu- 

 rope show that the legs and tail of the axolotl, as of 

 other larval salamanders, may be reproduced. We cut 

 off a leg of an axolotl the 1st of November ; it was 

 fully reproduced, though of smaller size than the others, 

 a month later. The tail, according to Mr. L. A. Lee, if 

 partly removed, will grow out again as perfect as ever, 

 vertebrae and all." 



In the hundreds of experiments I have made, I am 

 positive a very large proportion remained tailless from 

 two to twelve months, and all that I have found that 

 have appeared as second growths were never more than 

 one third the original size of the lost member. And so 

 it has been with amputated limbs. No regrowth took 

 place in many cases, and often, when it did, it was but 

 a mere fleshy outgrowth, with not sufficient strength in 



