COMMON TOAD. 125 
distinguish those who feed and are kind to them, there are 
abundant facts to testify. I have possessed a very large 
one which would sit on one of my hands, and eat from the 
other; and the story of Mr. Arscott’s Toad in Devonshire, 
related in Pennant’s British Zoology, is too well known to 
need repetition. 
The opinions formerly entertained of the properties 
of the Toad, were pre-eminently absurd. It was highly 
poisonous, and this not only from its bite; its breath, and 
even its glance were fraught with mischief or death. The 
water which it expels from the reservoir communicating 
with the cloaca, and the object of which I have already 
explained in speaking of the Frog, was supposed to be the 
urine, as it is generally, indeed, up to the present time, and 
was believed to be highly poisonous. It is almost unne- 
cessary to add, that this water is pure and limpid, and 
wholly without any deleterious qualities. The only cir- 
cumstance which can be said at all to favour the bad cha- 
racter which attaches to this animal is, that there are 
situated upon the back and sides numerous secreting folli- 
cular glands, the secreted matter from which is somewhat 
fetid and of an acrid quality. Dr. John Davy was, I be- 
lieve, the first who ever minutely examined into its true 
nature. The following is an abstract of Dr. Davy’s ob- 
servations on this subject. ‘‘ After adverting to the cor- 
rectness of the popular opinion respecting the poisonous 
nature of the Toad, which the professed naturalist has 
generally rejected, the author proceeds to describe the seat 
of the poison, which is chiefly in follicles in the skin, and 
which on pressure exudes from it in the form of a thick 
yellowish fluid, which on evaporation yields a transparent 
residue, very acrid, and acting on the tongue like extract 
of aconite. It is neither acid nor alkaline; and since a 
