the medicinal virtues and the valuable jewel, frequently appear in 

 the same writing associated with minor superstitions, which, though 

 equally ludicrous, never appear to have reached the popularity of the 

 ones cited. 



That the toad was venomous was not doubted by the ancients. It 

 was disagreeable, ugly in appearance and " the most deformed and 

 hideous of all animals," hence it must be venomous. Pliny writes 

 of " the venomous frogs and todes called Rubetae which live both on 

 land and ia the water." Juvenal makes the Roman dames poison thrift- 

 less or uncongenial husbands with a broth made from the toad's 

 entrails. Aelian considered its venom so potent that people might 

 be killed by its breath or glance. Erasmus bears witness to this 

 current belief in his absurd story of the toad and the sleeping monk. 

 Lyl}' referring to the toad-stone says, '"The fayrer the stone is in 

 the toade's head the more pestilent the poyson is in hir bowelles." 

 The uses of adversity are by Shakespeare compared to the " ugly 

 and venomous" toad. Accordingto Valisnerii, the German soldiers, 

 who in 1092 captured the castle of Arceti, amused themselves after 

 the manner of the local peasants in catching frogs and preparing 

 them for the table. To the great joy of the peasants the soldiers 

 did not discriminate betweea frogs and toads and both were cooked. 

 The natives felt that the hand of Providence had interposed in their 

 behalf and that a wholesale poisoning of their hated captors would 

 result. Soon however their joy was changed to anxiety, to aston- 

 ishment, and then to a superstitious awe of the gastronomic abilities 

 of the Teutons, for no evil effects resulted. Solenander gives us the 

 interesting account of a thrifty housewife who, finding the support of 

 a sickly husband too great a burden, decided to relieve herself of her 

 marital incubus by means of poison. Carefully calcining a toad, 

 she secretly administered the ashes in a cup of warm drink to her trust- 

 ing companion and then prepared herself for her anticipated bereave- 

 ment. To her surprise, the expected did not happen and after sev- 

 eral trials the worthy woman became discouraged and the husband 

 was allowed to live to a ripe old age. The Gallic antipathy to the 

 toad is proverbial and may have sprung from the belief that the 

 animal was poisonous. That it is not so regarded by all the French 

 market-men is evident from the statement of Bosc that unscrupu- 

 lous dealers frequently adulterate their stock of frogs' hind legs 

 with the corresponding members of toads. 



A considerable part of the early study of chemistry seems to have 



