FROGS, TOADS AND SOME GRAY-HAIRED LIES 433 



ties of our readers. 

 As an example, there 

 is an account of old 

 Ambrose Pare, who 

 should have been a 

 scientific man because 

 he held the position 

 of chief surgeon to 

 Henry III. of France, 

 but Pare really be- 

 longed to the hoop- 

 snake crowd of 

 scientists. Pare said 

 that while he was 

 overlooking a quarry, 

 he saw a man break 

 an exceedingly hard 

 and large stone, and discovered in the middle of 

 it a very big and very lively toad. This is 

 not the first time this lie has been told. Adam 

 probably told it to Eve, and maybe the stone that 

 David used had a toad in it. On the 2ist of May, 

 1793, a man named George Wilson walled a toad 

 up in some masonry upon which he was at work, 

 and it is claimed that sixteen years afterwards the 

 toad was found still to be alive. The truth is that 

 an ordinary toad will not live in a dwelling house 

 more than two or three days at the most; the toad 

 needs moisture and will dry up if confined to an 

 ordinary living room; this any of you can prove 

 by experiment. 



BIG TINK TOAD. 



