LECTURE VII. 25 



Is a perfectly innocent animal, and the tales re- 

 lative to its supposed venom are now pretty well 

 exploded. There are however some exotic spe- 

 cies of Toad, which exsude a highly acrimonious 

 and offensive moisture from their skin, and which 

 is said to be of a corrosive or hurtful nature. 



In South-America is produced a highly sin- 

 gular species of Toad, called the Pipa or Toad of 

 Surinam. It is of large size, with a flattened and 

 somewhat triangular head, and with all the toes 

 of the fore-feet regularly divided into four parts 

 at the tip; the hind-feet being widely webbed. 

 The young are produced, not in the usual man- 

 ner, but from numerous cells on the back of the 

 animal. It appears however on accurate exa- 

 mination, that even there they have undergone 

 the general change from the tadpole to the com- 

 plete animal, several having been observed in the 

 form of tadpoles in the cells themselves. 



Before we leave the Frog tribe we should par- 

 ticularize what has been sometimes called the 

 Frog-Fish of Surinam, and which was once sup- 

 posed to change from a Frog to a Fish. It is 

 no other than the Tadpole or first state of a spe- 

 cies of South-American Frog, which, when first 



