TOADS SAID TO BE A CURE FOR CANCER. 73 



and did not forget to make some inquiries concern- 

 ing the wonderful method of curing cancers by 

 means of toads. Several intelligent persons, both 

 gentry and clergy, do, I find, give a great deal of 

 credit to what was asserted in the papers ; and I 

 myself dined with a clergyman who seemed to be 

 persuaded that what is related is matter of fact ; but, 

 when I came to attend to his account, I thought I 

 discerned circumstances which did not a little 

 invalidate the woman's story of the manner in 

 which she came by her skill. She says of herself, 

 that, " labouring under a virulent cancer, she went 

 to some church where there was a vast crowd ; on 

 going into a pew, she was accosted by a strange 

 clergyman, who, after expressing compassion for her 

 situation, told her, that if she would make such an 

 application of living toads as is mentioned, she would 

 be well." Now, is it likely that this unknown gen- 

 tleman should express so much tenderness for this 

 single sufferer, and not feel any for the many thou- 

 sands that daily languish under this terrible disor- 

 der ? Would he not have made use of this invaluable 

 nostrum for his own emolument; or, at least, by 

 some means of publication or other, have found a 

 method of making it public for the good of man- 

 kind ? In short, this woman (as it appears to me) 

 having set up for a cancer doctress, finds it expedient 

 to amuse the country with this dark and mysterious 

 relation. 



The water -eft has not, that I can discern, the least 

 appearance of any gills ; for want of which it is con- 

 tinually rising to the surface of the water to take 

 in fresh air. I opened a big-bellied one, indeed, 

 and found it full of spawn. Not that this circum- 

 stance at all invalidates the assertion that they are 

 larvce ; for the larvce of insects are full of eggs, 

 which they exclude the instant they enter their 



