At Home with Wild Nature 



Tegetmeier induced the proprietors of The Field to offer 

 to anyone who could supply incontestable evidence. I 

 have dissected many vipers killed in the act of swallow- 

 ing their young ones, and sent to me with a piece of 

 string tied tightly round the neck to imprison the 

 youngsters, but alas ! in not one single instance have I 

 found a young one in the stomach of the victim. 

 Human evidence gathered under mental excitement is 

 rarely reliable. Ask any experienced lawyer. 



Another lowly creature the common toad has had 

 some wonderful legends woven round him. A few cen- 

 turies ago a superstition prevailed in England in con- 

 nexion with what was known as the " toadstone 

 ring." The setting was of silver and the stone or 

 jewel in it was popularly believed to have been formed 

 in the head of a very old toad. It was said to pos- 

 sess the power of indicating to the person who wore 

 it the proximity of poison by perspiring and changing 

 colour. 



" An ancient and absurd superstition that would not 

 gain the slightest credence in these enlightened days," 

 says the reader. True, but what about another equally 

 impossible legend in which many people still have im- 

 plicit faith, to the effect that " a toad has just been 

 released from some cavity in a piece of otherwise solid 

 rock or coal," where it had remained without air or food 

 for thousands of years ? 



I wish one of our professors of psychology would tell 

 us why the average human mind rejects some incredible 

 statements with scorn, and accepts without doubt or 



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