SATIRISING SCIENCE. j

Evening Post, Volume XLV, Issue 94, 22 April 1893, Page 2 (Supplement)

SATIRISING SCIENCE. j

Tho experiments of men of jcieneo furnish !■ itch amusement to the wits, who are not ptitifularly interested in the slow, minute, an 1 sometimes apparently hiM^niiii'ant in - Mitigations by menus of which important i-li>.-ieiil facts are learned. It is interetiti i.' to know that, it we cut i>U the tails oil |ii •meccHsive generations of mice at their lit ib, not one mouse oven in the fortieth v! ii' ration will be born without a tail. Hut w hen tho man of scionce was engaged i ■ utthur oil' the buby mice's tails all tho \ 0.-ld laughed at him. Tlio slowoxpeiiiiunits. to tutt tho pos-ibility that by degrees ii -i animal may ohaugo its habitat— a land : imal taking to the water, and so on — aro -.i irised in an amusing way iv n Berlin newspaper : — llerr Professor Schnffkopf, the eminent biologist, has* mot with a serious bereavement in tho course of his experiments re'ative to tho changes of habitat made by animals. Somo time ago ho captured a Ii ye herring. He took the fish homo and kopt it in a largo vat of salt water. Evory morning tho professor dipped out o " this vat half a teaspoonf ul of salt water, and replaced it witli an equal amount of fresh. His purpose was to accustom tho fish gradually to live in fresh water instead of salt. Tho herring lived on, and pnssed his days in tho best of spirits. In tho courso of time, tho water in the tank was rendored completely fresh. Not a grain of salt was left iv it, and tho herring romainod choorful and in good health. Next he began to deprivo tho fish, little by little, of the fresh Jwater olemeut iv which ho lived. In this also ho was successful, and after a time tho herring gambolled about iv a perfectly dry tank. The Herr professer congratulated himself that another transformation had been accomplished. He had a land herring at last. Herr professor put the herring in a bird cage, and tho intelligent creaturo uttered plaintive little cries of satisfaction and affection when tho professor in transferring him stroked him caressingly on the back. Nice littlo messes of food was given the fi-h, but the professor noticed the next day that something seemed to be tho matter with his pet. He seemed to desire something very much. Tho Herr professor meditated. "Really," ho exclaimed, presently, "I have it. I have forgottcu to givo the poor littlo fellow anything to drink." He brought a dish of wator, put it iv the cage, aud left the fieh to drink at its leisure. Next morning, when the Herr professor came to look at his fish, a sad sight met his gaze. The herring had fallen head first into the dish of water, and was drowned.