A HISTORY OF 



tory. From theconstant inoffensiveness which 

 I have observed iu them, I almost question 

 the truth of their poisonous spitting. Many 

 people here expect no great good from the 

 application of toads to cancers; and where 

 the disorder is not absolutely local, none is 

 to be expected. When it is seated in any 



Fart not to be well come at for extirpation, 

 think it is hardly to be imagined, but that 

 the having it sucked clean as often as you 

 please, must give great relief. Every body 

 knows that dogs licking of sores cures them, 

 which is I suppose chiefly by keeping them 

 clean. If there be any credit to be given to 

 history, poisons have been sucked out. Pal- 

 kntia vitlnera lambit ore venena trahens, are the 

 words of Ltican on the occasion. If the peo- 

 ple to whom these words are applied did 

 their cure by immediately following the in- 

 jection of the poison, the local confinement of 

 another poison brings the case to a great de- 

 gree of similarity. I hope I have not tired 

 your Lordship with my long tale: as it is a 

 true one, and in my apprehension a curious 

 piece of natural history, I could not forbear 

 communicating it to you. I own I thought 

 the story in the papers to bean invention; 

 and when I considered the instinctive prin- 

 ciple in all animals of self-preservation, 1 was 

 confirmed in my disbelief: but what I have 

 related I saw ; and all theory must yield to 

 fact. It is only the Rubeth, the land-toad, 

 which has the property of sucking: I cannot 

 find any the least mention of the property in 

 any one of the old naturalists. My patient 

 can bear to have but one applied in twenty- 

 four hours. The woman who was cured had 

 them on day and night without intermission 

 for five weeks. Their time of hanging at the 

 breast has been from one to six hours." 



Other remarks made upon their method of 

 performing this extraordinary operation are 

 as follow. " Some toads die very soon after 

 they have sucked -, others live about a quar- 

 ter of an hour, and some much longer. For 

 example, one that was applied about seven 

 o'clock sucked till ten, and died as soon as 

 it was taken from the breast; another that 

 immediately succeeded continued till three 

 o'clock, but dropped dead from the wound : 

 each swelled exceedingly, and of a pale co- 

 lour. They do not seem to suck greedily, 



and often turn their heads away; but during 

 the time of their sucking, they were heard to 

 smack their lips like a young child."" 



From this circumstantial account of the 

 progress of this extraordinary application, one 

 could hardly suppose that any doubt could 

 remain of the ingenious observer's accuracy ; 

 and yet, from information which I have it - 

 ceived from authority still more respectable, 

 there is much reason as yet to suspend our 

 assent. A lady, who was under the care of 

 the present president of the college of phy- 

 sicians, was induced by her friends to try the 

 experiment; and as he saw the case was des- 

 perate, and that it would quiet her mind as 

 as well as theirs, he permitted the trial. Du- 

 ring the whole continuance of their applica- 

 tion, she could never thoroughly perceive 

 that they sucked her; but that did not pre- 

 vent their swelling and dying, as in the former 

 instances. Once indeed, she said, she thought 

 that one of them seemed to suck ; but the 

 physician, and those who attended, could not 

 perceive any appearance of it. Thus, after 

 all, it is a doubt whether these animals die 

 by the internal or the external application of 

 the cancerous poison. 



Of this animal there are several varieties ; 

 such as the Water and the Land Toad, which 

 probably differ only in the ground-colour of 

 their skin. In the first, it is more inclining 

 to ash-colour, with brown spots ; in the other, 

 the colour is brown, approaching to black. 

 The water toad is not so large as the other; 

 but both equally breed in that element. The 

 size of the toad with us is generally from two 

 to four inches long; but in the fenny coun- 

 tries of Europe, I have seen them much 

 larger, and not less than a common crab, when 

 brought to table. But this is nothing to what 

 they are found in someof the tropical climates, 

 where travellers often, for the first time, mis- 

 take a toad for a tortoise. Their usual size 

 is from six to seven inches; but there are some 

 still larger, and as broad as a plate. Of the^e 

 some are beautifully streaked and coloured; 

 some studded over, as with pearls; others 

 bristled with horns or spines; some have the 

 head distinct from the body, while others have 

 it so sunk in, that the animal appears without 



British Zoology, vol. iii. p. 338. 



