CHAPTER XV 



BEGINNINGS OF THE NEXT GENERATION 



Professor Loeb in the United States and Professor Batail- 

 lon in France have accomplished a marvel with frogs' eggs. 



One thousand of these eggs were 

 taken from the body of the mother 

 before they were fertilized. They 

 were put into a small dish and were 

 pricked one after the other with the 

 finest possible platinum needle. 

 Water of the right warmth was 

 poured over them to keep them 

 moist, and the dish with its water 

 and eggs was set aside while Pro- 



Within four hours these hoped- 

 for results began to appear. The 

 eggs were evidently developing, 

 and before long most of them were 

 changed somewhat. Still only one 

 fifth kept on developing as normal 

 eggs of the normal frog are ac- 

 customed to do. 



Moreover, as days passed, so 

 many of them stopped growing that 

 only 1 20 turned themselves into 

 tadpoles. This is the first great 



Tadpole No. i 



This tadpole developed from an 

 unfertilized frog's egg that had 

 been pricked with a platinum 

 needle by Professor Loeb. It 

 lived five months and passed 

 almost beyond the tadpole stage. 

 When it died it had all four legs 

 and only the remnant of a tail. 

 (Courtesy of Professor Loeb) 



1 Reported in Nature (London), June 22, 191 1. 



100 



