THE TOAD. 31$ 



fc 



pose, she chose out a dose that she supposed would be the 

 most effectual; and having calcined some Toads, mixe " 

 their powder with his drink.' The man, after taking a 

 hearty dose, found no considerable inconvenience, except 

 that it greatly promoted urine. His wife, who considered 

 this as a beginning symptom of the venom, resolved not to 

 stint the next dose, but gave it in greater quantities than 

 before. This also increased the former symptom; and, in 

 a few days, the woman had the mortification to see her de- 

 tested husband restored to perfect health ; and remained 

 in utter despair of ever being a widow. 



From all this it will appear with what injustice this ani- 

 mal has hitherto been treated. It has undergone every 

 kind of reproach : and mankind have been taught to con- 

 sider as an enemy, a creature that destroys that insect tribe 

 which are their real invaders. We are to treat, therefore, 

 as fables, those accounts that represent the Toad as pos- 

 sessed of poison to kill at a distance ; of its ejecting its 

 venom, which burns wherever it touches ; of its infecting 

 those vegetables near which it resides ; of its excessive 

 fondness for sage, which it renders poisonous by its ap- 

 proach ; these, and a hundred others of the same kind, 

 probably took rise from an antipathy which some have to 

 all animals of the kind. It is a harmless, defenceless 

 creature, torpid and unvenomous, and seeking the darkest 

 retreats, not from the malignity of its nature, but the mul- 

 titudes of its enemies. 



Like all the frog kind, the Toad is torpid in winter. It 

 chooses then for a retreat either the hollow root of a tree, 

 the cleft of a rock, or sometimes t'he bottom of a pond, 

 where it is found in a state of seeming insensibility. As it 

 is very long lived, it is very difficult to be killed; its skin 

 is tough, and cannot be easily pierced ; and, though 

 covered with wounds, the animal continues to show signs 

 of life, and every part appears in motion. But what shall 

 we say to its living for centuries lodged in the bosom of a 



