COMMON TOAD. 123 



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 



