82 The Natural History of Selborne 



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 gentleman should express so much tenderness 

 for this single sufferer, and not feel any for the many thousands 

 that daily languish under this terrible disorder ? 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 mankind ? 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 continually rising to the surface of 

 the water to take in fresh air. 1 I opened a big-bellied one indeed, 

 and found it full of spawn. Not that this circumstance at all in- 

 validates the assertion that they are larvae ; for the larv<e of insects 

 are full of eggs, which they exclude the instant they enter their last 

 state. The water-eft is continually climbing over the brims of the 

 vessel, within which we keep it in water, and wandering away ; and 

 people every summer see numbers crawling out of the pools where 

 they are hatched up the dry banks. There are varieties of them 

 differing in colour ; and some have fins up their tail and back, and 

 some have not. 2 



1 White is quite right as to the newt in its developed adult state : but in its 

 larval form, Ellis was correct in saying that it possesses gills. ED. 2 The male 

 newts develop an ornamental jagged crest or membrane up the tail and back in 

 the breeding season only, doubtless as an attraction to add to their beauty. ED. 



