12 



THE COMMON TOAD. 



to small birds, as the following quotation from the said work will shew: — 

 *'\Ve tried the effect of the secretion of the Common Toad on several 

 small birds; they all died in five or six minutes, but without convulsions. 

 They opened their mouths, tottered as if drunk, and had evidently lost 

 the power of regulating their movements. At the end of a few seconds 

 they shut their eyes, as if to sleep, and fell dead." 



"The secretion from the Toad killed birds after it had been dried; two 

 milligrammes of the dried poison killed a Chaffinch in a quarter of an hour. 

 The poisonous quality of this secretion is not destroyed even though its 

 acidity be neutralized by potash. We have not ascertained what internal 

 derangements are produced by these poisons; but we constantly found in 

 the birds which were killed distinct symptoms of apoplexy in the region 

 of the brain," 



The above experiments clearly prove that the notion of the poisonous 

 qualities of this milky secretion of the Toad is not without foundation; but 

 that its bite, its breath, or even its glance, are fraught with death, etc., 

 are absurdities which we hope we have already overthrown. Our opinion 

 respecting the use of this poison is, to defend the reptile against its enemies, 

 which are not a few, and that it is not injurious except by inoculation, and 

 that in rather large doses. 



The Toad has only four toes on the fore feet, as shewn in our figure 

 A, and five on the hinder, as shewn in the figure B. They are not web- 

 bed as in the frog, but there is a small membrane at the base, as shewn 

 in the sketch. The usual pace of the Toad is a kind of crawl, but it 

 has the power of leaping, and that to a considerable distance, though 

 not with the harlequin agility of the frog. When alarmed or threatened 

 with danger it stops, swells its body, and remains till all danger is over, as 

 motionless as a stone, when off it crawls to some quiet corner. If when 

 frightened, it is taken up in the hand, small quantities, from time to time, 

 of the cutaneous secretion exudes from the follicles on the hand^ as also 



