“Neither the one nor the other. The tail is too valuable when the change takes place to be thrown away in that reckless fashion. It contains a store of material suitable for making something else in the bodily organism. When the legs begin to put forth, when the organs of digestion and those of respiration begin to take a new form, these new creations, these transformations, require material with which to build. Fleshy substance is needed for the up-building of the body just as bricks and mortar are needed for the construction of the house. Of course the tadpole eats to make flesh and to provide a reserve for the work of transformation; but this method of accumulation is slow, and therefore, to save time, the organs useless to the future animal are destroyed, bit by bit, and their material is used in the construction of new parts. It is thus that the tail disappears. The blood circulating through it gradually eats it away, dissolves it, as we might say, at the proper time and carries elsewhere the fluid substance, which, turned again into flesh, helps to form the legs or other parts of the remodeled organism.” “What a deal of economy in getting rid of a tadpole’s tail!” exclaimed Emile. “Not a particle of it, even if no bigger than a pin’s head, must be thrown away, for it might be used to make the little toe on one of the feet.” “Yes, my boy, a wonderful economy, an economy careful of every atom of matter in order that life, the divine worker, may not fail to have at its disposal, undiminished by waste, the resources committed to its keeping by the Creator for works that are unceasingly being destroyed and then restored on a new plan. “I should add here that certain batrachians keep the tail as long as they live. To this class belong the salamanders, one species of which, the terrestrial or land salamander, is extremely ugly. In form it is half-way between a toad and a lizard, and its color is black with large bright-yellow spots. It is from one to two decimeters long. It haunts damp places near springs and eats insects and earthworms. Despite its repulsive appearance it is perfectly harmless. “The tadpole of the salamander breathes through fine tuft-like appendages which spread out in the water on each side of the neck. These tufts are called gills, and they correspond to the fish’s breathing organs or gills, which are likewise situated on each side of the neck under the tiny flap commonly called the ear. Tadpoles of the frog and the toad have, for the first few days, fringed gills floating out freely; but in a short time they are drawn in under the skin and become invisible like the gills of fish.