380 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



that had the " slobbers/' as the farmers there say. But I am told 

 that on the north coast of Prince Edward's Island the name " horse- 

 spit " is one in common use for the substance ; frog-spit and cuckoo- 

 spit are other synonyms in the same locality. This last fanciful 

 name is also to be met with in England and Ireland. A native of 

 County Kerry, Ireland, has told me in considerable detail the 

 popular theory, in that region, of its origin. The cuckoo-spit, she 

 said, is found only on the leaves of sorrel (Rumex acetosella). Any 

 one who looks inside the little bunches of spit will find a very 

 small green bug, and this bug is the last thing the cuckoo ate 

 before she went away for the winter. So, when she comes back, 

 she must spit this out before she can sing at all. And therefore, 

 when people see this spit on the sorrel leaves in the morning, they 

 say, " Now the cuckoo's come back again," or " The cuckoo's been 

 here in the night." 



Very generally throughout the United States the spittle of an 

 angry dog, if introduced into the circulation, is thought to be a dead- 

 ly poison, and the bite of a dog that is enraged is feared almost like 

 that of one having hydrophobia. The same belief is held to a less 

 extent regarding the saliva of an angry man. In Swabia, says Dr. 

 Buck, not only are both of these kinds of spittle deemed to be 

 highly poisonous, but the most dangerous of all is reckoned to be 

 that of a person who has been tickled to death ! Some interesting 

 superstitions brought here by Irish immigrants, concerning the 

 dangerous character of the spit of the weasel, have been recounted 

 elsewhere.* With us the saliva of an angry horse is also dreaded. 

 The saliva of the rat, both in the United States and in England, is 

 pretty generally endowed by the popular imagination with ven- 

 omous properties, whether the rat which inflicts the bite is espe- 

 cially irritated at the moment of biting or not. In the rat's case 

 the poisonous character attributed to the bites of the long, chisel- 

 shaped incisors is sometimes ascribed to a specific poison existent 

 in the saliva, and sometimes to the teeth being covered, as it is 

 thought, with the remains of the garbage on which the animal 

 feeds. Frank Buckland, one of the best of authorities on such 

 matters, asserts positively that the bite of the rat is not poisonous, 

 and that bad effects follow from rat-bites only when the patient's 

 system is in such a condition that any trivial wound might cause 

 serious consequences. f Several skilled physicians, to whom I have 

 addressed inquiries in regard to the nature of wounds inflicted by 

 the teeth, either of man or of such domesticated mammals as are 

 likely to attack man, have all stated that, contrary to the popular 

 belief, these bites are no more dangerous than like injuries inflicted 



* Article III of this series. 



f Curiosities of Natural History, popular edition, first series, fifth edition, pp. 107, 108. 



