164 COMMON TOAD. 



THE last of the true Frogs which can be mentioned in this work is the BOMBARDIER 

 (Bombindtor igneus), a native of many parts of Europe, and common in France. 



It is fond of water, and seldom found in very dry localities. When disturbed, it has 

 the power of emitting a strong and very unpleasant odour of garlic, which serves it as a 

 means of defence, like the penetrating scent of the common ringed snake. It is active, 

 and can both swim and leap well. The eggs are laid in long strings, and the tadpole is of 

 a very large size when compared with the earliest state of its perfect existence, and, like 

 the paradoxical Frog already described, is larger in the tadpole state than after it has 

 assumed its perfect form. 



The colour of the Bombardier is greyish brown above, and orange below, marbled or 

 spotted with blue black. 



WE now arrive at another section of Batrachians, including those creatures which are 

 known under the title of Toads, and of which the COMMON TOAD of Europe is so familiar 

 an example. The members of this section may be known by the absence of teeth in the 

 jaws and the well-developed ears. 



The general aspect and habits of this creature are too well known to require more than 

 a cursory notice. Few creatures, perhaps, have been more reviled and maligned than the 

 Toad, and none with less reason. In the olden days, the Toad was held, to be the very 

 compendium of poison, and to have so deadly an effect upon human beings, that two persons 

 were related to have died from eating the leaf of a sage bush under which a Toad had 

 burrowed. Still, even in those times, it was held to possess two virtues, the one being the 

 celebrated jewel supposed to be found in its head, and the other the power of curing 

 bleeding at the nose. 



This jewel could not be procured by dissection, but must be obtained by causing the 

 owner to eject it. " But the art," says one of the quaint old writers, " is in taking of it out, 

 for they say it must be taken out of the head alive before the Toad be dead, with a piece 

 of cloth of the colour of red Scarlet, wherewithal they are much delighted, so that while they 

 stretch out themselves as it were in sport upon that cloth, they cast out the stone of their 

 head, but instantly they sup it up again, unless it be taken from them through some secret 

 hole in the said cloth, whereby it falleth into a cistern or vessel of water into which the Toad 

 dareth not enter, by reason of the coldnesse of the water. . . . The probation of this Stone is 

 by laying of it to a live Toad, and if she lift up her head against it, it is good, but if she 

 run away from it, it is a counterfeit." 



The same writer gives, in his own racy language, an account of the use to which even 

 so venomous an animal as a Toad may be put by those who know how to employ the 

 worst things for the best purposes. " Frederic, the Duke of Saxony, was wont to practis 

 in this manner. He had ever a Toad pierced through with a piece of wood, which Toad 

 was dryed in the smoak or shadow, this he rowled in a linnen cloth ; and when he came 

 to a man bleeding at the nose, he caused him to hold it fast in his hand until it waxed hot, 

 and then would the bloud be stayed. Whereof the Physitians could never give any reason, 

 except horrour and fear constrained the bloud to run into his proper place, through fear of 

 a Beast so contrary to humane nature. The powder also of a Toad is said to have the 

 same vertua" 



For these, and other similar opinions too numerous for mention, there is some little 

 foundation. The skin of the Toad's back is covered thickly with little glands, and some 

 larger glands are gathered into two sets, one at each side of the back of the head, and secrete 

 a liquid substance, with sufficient acridity to make the eyes smart should they be touched 

 with this fluid, and to force a dog to loose his hold, if he should pick up a Toad in his 

 mouth, and run away with open jaws and foaming mouth. The glands at the back of the 

 head secrete a large quantity of liquid, and if pressed, will eject it in little streams to the 

 distance of a few inches. 



In France, this poor creature is shamefully persecuted, the idea of its venomous and 

 spiteful nature being widely disseminated and deeply rooted. The popular notion is that 



