OF SELBORNH. 95 



LETTER XVII. 



TO THE SAME. 

 DEAR SIR, SELBORJSE, June 18, 1768. 



ON Wednesday last arrived your agreeable letter of 

 June the LOth. It gives me great satisfaction to find 

 that you pursue these studies still with" -such vigour, 

 and are in such forwardness with regard to reptiles 

 and fishes. 



The reptiles, few as they are, I am not acquainted 

 with, so well as I could wish, with regard to their 

 natural history. There is a degree of dubiousness and 

 obscurity attending the propagation of this class of ani- 

 mals, something analogous to that of the Cryptogamia in 

 the sexual system of plants : and the case is the same 

 with regard to some of the fishes ; as the eel, &c, 



The method in which toads procreate and bring forth 

 seems to be very much in the dark. Some authors say 

 that they are viviparous : and yet Ray classes them 

 among his oviparous animals ; and is silent with regard 

 to the manner of their bringing forth. Perhaps they 

 may be ecu p^ev wVroxw, l^w tie ^WOTOXO/, as is known to be 

 the case with the viper. 



*H TCOV $arpa%wt GVVU.($V\ (vf on crvvatyq eotxe, o Swammer- 

 dam yap &?%& or/, ru appsvi x IV* wsiptv $ IIQ ryv 

 eqt xEpiQavys' ypi yap aAA aAAwv fV 



Jvtje opdo^ev &$6TOre $6 v\ hdov 

 TSC; (pucraAH^ TUVTU Tpet7TOpL6We supxffQcu 1 . 



It is strange that the matter with regard to the 

 venom of toads has not been yet settled 2 . That they 



1 In this respect the toad does not differ from the frog. E. T. B. 



2 The question of the venom of toads is now set at rest. The old pre- 

 judice that they possess the power of communicating poison by their bite 

 is wholly unfounded ; and the fluid which they eject from the cloaca 

 when frightened or handled is, in their case as in frogs, pure limpid 



