OCTOBER 229 



eighteen months of imprisonment all had died of 

 starvation. 



Toads have suffered much from man in the past, 

 owing to the unjust inference that such an ugly, 

 crepuscular creature must be noxious. It is quite 

 true that, like many of the Amphibia, they possess a 

 protective poison, but they are quite incapable of 

 spitting it at a supposed enemy. A powerful venom 

 is contained in the warts on the upper parts of the 

 body, each of which has an open poison gland, whence 

 a milky secretion exudes when the animal is crushed 

 or wounded. This poison has no ill-effect upon toads 

 of the same species ; but Mr. Hans Gadow has found 

 that individuals of different species of the same genus, 

 if brought into forcible contact, as in a collector's bag, 

 may cause each other's death. Gardeners have learnt 

 to encourage the presence of toads in their borders, 

 knowing their diligence in consuming slugs, earwigs, 

 wood-lice, and other undesirable colonists. Nor need 

 the gardener fear injury to his children, provided the 

 children do not torment the toad. But let them be 

 warned against the custom, which once prevailed in 

 some country districts, of mutilating toads or putting 

 them to a painful death, for such cruelty may entail a 

 fitting punishment by causing a copious discharge 

 from the poison glands and severe suffering to the 

 tyrant. 



The poison of Amphibia is of a peculiar nature ; that 

 of the common toad being held by some authorities 

 to be an acid and by others an alkaloid. It is ex- 

 plained as acting upon the heart through the nervous 



