THE COMMON TOAD. 117 



externally upon tlieir backs'; but upon toads 

 themselves it has no influence. 



It is said that in certain countries the Indians 

 hunt after several species of toads with pointed 

 sticks. They transfix the animals with these 

 sticks, and when they have collected a consi- 

 derable quantity of them, they place them before 

 a large fire, but at a sufficient distance to pre- 

 vent their being roasted. The heat excites the 

 cutaneous secretion, which is collected by the 

 Indians as it is discharged from the pustules, for 

 the purpose of poisoning their arrows. The 

 humour secreted in the follicles of the triton, 

 or great water newt, has similar properties, but 

 is less virulent. 



In a recent number of a French journal, an 

 instance is recorded of the virus of the toad 

 entering the blood of a child, and causing 

 death : 



A young lad, ten years of age, named Louis P , whose 



parents are small tradespeople in the Faubourg Saint-Antoine, 

 was playing with some of his companions near Bercy, not 

 far from a building in the course of demolition. This boy, 

 who was of a delicate constitution, had a slight abrasion of 

 the skin of the right hand. Having seen a lizard crawl into 

 a hole in an old wall, he put in his hand, but instead of the 

 lizard he drew out an enormous toad, which he immediately 

 threw on the ground. The skin of the toad is covered with 

 large tubercles, formed by an aggregation of small pustules, 

 open at their summit. A milky liquid, of a yellowish-white 

 colour, very thick, and of a fetid odour, escapes from these 



