BATRACHIA. 71 



sides. This is the species which by the ancients 

 was invested with supernatural powers, classed with 

 the Dragon and Basilisk, and, like them, feared 

 and detested. It was, and is, reputed to be highly 

 poisonous ; but it appears that the charge is true 

 only as regards a milky fluid that exudes from the 

 skin, and which it can shoot to the distance of seve- 

 ral inches : * this is caustic, nauseous, and fatal to 

 small animals. The notion that it is able to resist 

 the action of fire has been scouted in modern times, 

 but what shall we say to the following anecdote, 

 from no less a naturalist than the venerable Kirby ? 

 He gives it upon the authority of three ladies who 

 witnessed the fact, and on whose accuracy he can 

 rely : " They were residing at Newbury, where 

 their cellars were frequented by frogs, and a kind 

 of newt, or Salamander, of a dull black colour. 

 Several of the frogs were caught one day, and put 

 into a pail; and while the ladies were looking at 

 them, they were surprised by observing the frogs 

 one after another turn themselves on their backs, 

 and lie with their legs extended quite stiff and dead. 

 Upon examining the pail, they found one of these 

 efts, as they called them, running round very quickly 

 amongst the frogs, each of which when touched by it 

 died instantaneously in the manner above stated. 

 They afterwards regarded these efts, as may be sup- 

 posed, with nearly as much horror as they would 

 a rattle-snake ; and a few nights afterwards, finding 

 one in the kitchen, it was seized with the tongs and 

 * Griffith's Cuv. vol. ix. p. 471. 



