298 POPULAR HISTORY OF THE AQUxA-RIUiL 



to lier nearest neighbour, who in equal terror went to fetch 

 her husband from his work. But before his arrival^ some 

 valiant workmen w^ere passing by, and being appealed to, 

 made a vigorous onslaaght on the two-inch monster, and cut 

 him into small pieces with tlieir trowels ! It was a poor 

 water-newt, and the villagers then, as in Shakespeare's time, 

 reckoned the species among noxious and dangerous animals 

 more or less connected wdth supernatural agency. How 

 would the Waltonites be astonished to see these animals 

 iloating innocently among water-lilies in the tank, without 

 any covering or other means of protecting the public from 

 their power ! Setting aside the supernatural, however, we 

 may remark that an idea of the poisonous powers of toads 

 and newts has been very general, and it has probably arisen 

 from the moisture secreted by the animal to keep in active, 

 operation the breathing apparatus of the skin. This moisture 

 is acrid and irritating, and would very likely tend to increase 

 the inflammation of any wound on which it might happen to 

 be pressed. 



The Amphibia are intermediate in their structure between 

 fishes and true reptiles ; and in the two orders which we are 

 about to notice, namely that containing the frogs and toads, 

 and that containing the newts, a transition of organization 



I 



