i ^85.] Susceptibility to Transformations. 343 
damp moss, and had breathed with their lungs but had not 
changed their skins, felt completely at home as soon as they 
were returned to the water. 
This surprising faCt induced Miss von Chauvin to institute 
further experiments on the adaptive power of the axolotl, 
and in particular to attempt, by suitable treatment, a re- 
peated transformation of these creatures, from the lower to 
the higher stage, and thence back again to the lower. This 
interesting experiment has, in faCt, been carried out with a 
successful result. 
Without entering upon an account of the means and the 
precautions used, or a description of the various stages of 
transformation, we pass at once to the results. 
An axolotl lived altogether for three and a half years. 
The first fifteen months it spent naturally, and without any 
interference, in the water ; its development was then artifi- 
cially accelerated, and in twelve days it was transformed 
into a lung-breathing animal, It then lived on the land for 
fifteen and a half months ; it was next, during the lapse of 
six days, brought back to the water, where it spent three 
and a half months. In the space of eleven days it was 
again so modified that it could once more live on the land, 
where it remained for rather more than six months, up to 
its death. 
The power of adaptation to a change of medium was so 
distinctly marked in this animal, and was maintained for 
such a length of time, that Miss von Chauvin instituted a 
further experiment with axolotls with the objeCt of inter- 
rupting at pleasure the metamorphosis of these creatures, 
and suspending it for years, and subsequently testing their 
adaptability. For this purpose served five axolotls, each 
about six and a half months old, in which the development 
of the lungs was easily so far accelerated that they could 
live on the land. At this stage the further metamorphosis 
was suspended by a low temperature and by being placed 
during the night in water. Nevertheless in one specimen 
there occurred quite unexpectedly, after the lapse of fourteen 
months and twenty-two days, the first moulting, followed by 
the further conversion into the Amblystoma form. The four 
others were kept, however, for three years and two months 
in the state of suspended metamorphosis. After the expiry 
of this time the attempt was made to convert two of them 
back into axolotls, whilst two others were to pass on fully 
into the Amblystoma stage. The result of this experiment 
was affirmative. The first two specimens reverted to axo- 
lotls ; of the two latter one died, whilst the other became 
a perfect Amblystoma. 
