THE COMMON TOAD. 119 



We shall now return (he writes) to the notion of its being 

 a poisonous animal, and deliver as our opinion, that its ex- 

 cessive deformity, joined to the faculty it has of emitting a 

 juice from its pimples, and a dusky liquid from its hind 

 parts, is the foundation of the report. That it has any 

 noxious qualities we have been unable to bring proofs in the 

 smallest degree satisfactory, though we have heard many 

 strange relations on that point. On the contrary, we know 

 several of our friends who have taken them in their naked 

 hands, and held them long without receiving the least injury. 

 It is also well known that quacks have eaten them, and have 

 besides squeezed their juices into a glass and drank them 

 with impunity. In a word, we may consider the toad as an 

 animal that has neither good nor harm in it ; that being a 

 defenceless creature, nature has furnished it, instead of arms, 

 with a most disgusting deformity, that strikes into almost 

 every being capable of annoying it, a strong repugnancy to 

 meddle with so hideous and threatening an appearance. 



The toad is very easily domesticated, and 

 when under confinement, or partially so, soon 

 becomes emboldened and apparently attached to 

 those who cater for its appetite. A gentleman 

 who caught a young toad, and brought it to the 

 great metropolis to reside with him in town, 

 gives the following particulars of his pet : 



He would occasionally absent himself for weeks, so that I 

 ceased to be alarmed for his welfare, even though I might 

 not have caught sight of him for a month. In this manner 

 we went on, leaving Toady to take his holidays as he pleased, 

 until the spring of last year. During one of his temporary 

 vacations, I was watching the movements of some small 

 insects, and it appeared that my pet was watching them 

 also, for on their approaching within reach of his tongue, 



