4 THE COMMON FROG. [chap. 



part of the habitable globe. Nevertheless Frogs 

 and Toads have few admirers even amongst professed 

 zoologists, and meet with no little neglect. 



While the term " Ornithologist " ^ is familiar to 

 everyone, and the title " Erpetologist " ^ is so to all 

 naturalists ; the name ''Batrachologist " ^ has not yet 

 been conferred on or assumed by any one worker in 

 Science. 



Economically, Frogs are of little esteem in Eng- 

 land, save occasionally for bait and as the staple food 

 of certain rare and interesting animals preserved in 

 our menageries. Our American cousins indeed have 

 given one more evidence of their French sympathies 

 by the introduction of the Frog into their cuisine, and, 

 as suits that land of the longest rivers and the largest 

 lakes, it is no less a creature than the gigantic Bull- 

 frog which figures in the memi of Transatlantic 

 goitnnets. 



If zoologists and economists have neglected the 

 Frog, the same assertion can by no means be made 

 with respect to physiologists. 



The Frog is the never-failing resource for the phy- 

 siological experimenter. It would take long indeed 

 to tell the sufferings of much-enduring Frogs in the 

 cause of Science ! What Frogs can do without their 

 heads t What their legs can do without their bodies ? 

 What their arms can do without either head or trunk.'' 

 What is the effect of the removal of their brains t 

 How they can manage without their eyes and without 



^ "OpviBus, a bird, and \6yos, a discourse. 

 - 'Epirercii/, a reptile, and \6yos. 

 ^ Bdrpaxos, a frog, and \6yos. 



