Page:Life in Motion.djvu/154

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134
LIFE IN MOTION

experiments of this kind, we can get valuable information of great use to the physician, and it is satisfactory to know that information thus obtained from experiments on the frog's heart has been found to agree with that got by experimenting on the hearts of warm-blooded animals. This is another example of how valuable to humanity the frog has been in the way of giving scientific information. It is not too much to say that each time your physician sees you when you are ill he brings to the study of your case knowledge that has been gathered for him by the physiologist from the frog. As we are in the habit of commemorating by monuments the services of those who have been benefactors to humanity, I know no animal,—no tiger, lion, or panther,—that better deserves a bronze statue than the humble frog. Such a statue in Trafalgar Square or on the Thames Embankment would not inappropriately mark our appreciation of the services he has involuntarily rendered to humanity.

Referring to rhythm, look for a moment at this experiment in which you see a muscle—the sartorius—beating rhythmically like a