ADAPTATION FOR THE INDIVIDUAL 1 19 



toad joined the circle. He came out of his dewy re- 

 treat clean and fresh from his morning bath. I took 

 him in my hands, and made him the subject of an im- 

 mediate lesson. I showed to my pupils his eyes and 

 his interesting method of handling them, his tongue 

 and its strange insertion; showed them how to look 

 into his mouth and look up his ears to his ear drums, 

 and pointed out many other interesting facts. Then 

 I told them how Cope had said that the toad had 

 power to emit from its skin a fluid so nauseous that 

 many an animal hesitates to eat it. This is the first 

 peculiarity I had mentioned which I had not myself 

 observed, and a scientific qualm came over my con- 

 science. Why had I never verified this statement 

 which I had so frequently repeated? On the impulse 

 of the moment, with the bright, clean skin of the 

 creature fresh from the dewy grass, making it less 

 than usually repulsive, I ran my tongue up its back 

 only to find that it had no taste whatever. I was of 

 course surprised, but I was not foolish enough to 

 deny, as the result of one observation, the statement 

 of a good scientist. The observation, moreover, was 

 one which I naturally did not care to repeat with any 

 frequency. Of one thing I was sure, toads do not al- 

 ways have an unpleasant taste. 



A year later I had a class down by the side of a 

 neighboring pond. The pool was not an attractive 



