AQUABIITM. 



their way through the jelly and enter upon their aquatic 

 existence. When first hatched, they feed on the remains of the 

 gluten in which they were embedded. In this stage of their 

 existence they bear but small resemblance to a frog, being 

 merely head and tail ; the former large, black, and roundish ; 

 the latter slender, and bordered with a very broad, transparent 

 finny margin. Their motions are extremely lively, and they 

 are often seen in such vast numbers as to blacken the pool 

 they inhabit. When the tadpole has arrived at the age of 

 five or six weeks the hind legs make their appearance, gradually 

 increasing in length and size, and in about a fortnight after- 

 wards are succeeded by the fore-legs. It now partakes cf the 

 . form both of a frog and a lizard ; but this state of things does 

 not continue many hours : the tail immediately begins to 

 shrink and wither, and in about thirty hours has vanished 

 entirely. The indefatigable Mr. Lewes has furnished the 

 world with some curious facts about the tail of the tadpole. 

 If the caudal appendage of one of these creatures be cut off 

 before it is ready to dispense with it, the tail wiU continue to 

 live for several days, and not only live but grow. " The dis- 

 covery," writes Mr. Lewes, " is none of mine, — it was made by 

 M. Vulpian, in Paris. He says that the tails constantly lived 

 many days — as many as eighteen on one occasion ; but I have 

 never kept mine alive more than eleven. He says, moreover, 

 that they not only grow as I have said, but manifest sensi- 

 bility, for they twist about with a rapid swimming movement 

 when irritated. I have not seen this ; but M. Vulpian is too 

 experienced a physiologist to have been mistaken, and with 

 regard to the growth of the tails, his observations are all the 

 more trustworthy because he daily made drawings of the 

 aspects presented by the tails, and could thus compare the 

 progress made. The tail will only live apart from the body so 

 long as it retains its early immature form, that is to say, so 

 long as it has not become highly organized. If you cut it off 

 a tadpole which is old enough to have lost its external gills a 

 week or more, the tail will not live more than three or four 

 days. And every tail will die as soon as it reaches the point 

 in its development which requires the circulation of the blood 

 as a necessary condition." 



I would, however, impress on the younger portion of my 

 readers that the above interesting particulars are intended 

 merely as stimulants to their interest, as they watch the curious 

 tadpole steering in its crystal prison, and not as an incentive 



