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ORIGINAL COMMUNICATIONS. 



On the Structure of the Cutaneous Follicles of the Toad, 

 tvith some Experiments and Observations upon the Nature 

 and alleged Venomous Properties of their Secretion. Bj 

 George Rainey, M.R.C.S., Lecturer on Anatomy, &c. &c., 

 St, Thomas's Hospital. 



From time immemorial a venomous quality has been attributed 

 to one or other of the secretions of the toad. Scarcely any one 

 who has spent much time in the provinces of this, and other 

 countries, has failed to hear of instances of supposed poisoning 

 by this reptile : these accounts, however, have always been so 

 vague and imperfectly attested, as to obtain credit only among 

 the uninformed and superstitious classes of the people, so that 

 by enlightened persons the belief in the venomous powers of 

 the Toad has been regarded only as a vulgar prejudice. Such 

 were the doubts and opinions entertained upon this subject 

 as late as 1851, when they were said to be set at rest, and the 

 poisonous nature of the cutaneous secretion of the toad de- 

 monstrated by two French philosophers, MM. Gratiolet and 

 S. Cloez, who, by inoculating various animals with the secre- 

 tion in question, produced, according to the account given of 

 these experiments, most decided results, and, in some in- 

 stances, almost immediate death. 



The experiments performed by these gentlemen were de- 

 scribed in many of the periodicals of this country. The 

 following are recorded in the ' Zoologist ' for November 1852 : 

 •'The first experiment was prosecuted on a little African 

 tortoise, which was inoculated with some of the toad-poison in 

 one of the hinder feet ; paralysis of the limb supervened, and 

 still existed at the expiration of eight months, thus demon- 

 strating the possibility of lotal poisoning by the agent. In 

 order to demonstrate whether the poisonous material spoiled 

 by keeping, these two gentlemen procured about twenty-nine 

 grains of the poison on the 25th of April, 1851, and having 

 placed it aside until the 16th of March, 1852, fhey inoculated 

 a goldfinch with a little of this material ; tl e bird almost 

 immediately died. Subsequently the investigators succeeded 

 in eliminating the poisonous principle from the inert matters 

 with which it is associated in tVie skin-pustules, and they 

 found that when thus purified, its effects are greatly more 

 intense than before." Although the only way to investigate 



vol. III. s 



