46 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 



breadth and muscular strength of the tail it appears to be an active 

 nimble fish." 



In my visit I was not very far from Hungerford, and did not forget 

 to make some inquiries concerning the wonderful method of curing 

 cancers by means of toads. Several intelligent persons, both gentry 

 and clergy, do I find give a great deal of credit to what is asserted in 

 the papers, and I myself dined with a clergyman who seemed to be 

 persuaded that what is related is matter of fact ; but, when I came 

 to attend to his account, I thought I discerned circumstances which 

 did not a little invalidate the woman's story of the manner in which 

 she came by her skill. She says of herself " that, labouring under a 

 virulent cancer, she went to some church where there was a vast crowd ; 

 on going into a pew, she was accosted by a strange clergyman, who, 

 after expressing compassion for her situation, told her that if she would 

 make such an application of living toads as is mentioned she would be 

 well." Now is it likely that this unknown gentleman should express so 

 much tenderness for this single sufferer, and not feel any for the many 

 thousands that daily languish under this terrible disorder ] Would he 

 not have made use of this invaluable nostrum for his own emolument ; 

 or at least, by some means of publication or other, have found a 

 method of making it public for the good of mankind] In short, 

 this woman (as it appears to me) having set up for a cancer-doctress, 

 finds it expedient to amuse the country with this dark and mysterious 

 relation. 



The water-eft has not, that I can discern, the least appearance of any 

 gills ; for want of which it is continually rising to the surface of the 

 water to take in fresh air. I opened a big-bellied one indeed, and 

 found it full of spawn. Not that this circumstance at all invalidates 

 the assertion that they are larvae ; for the larvce of insects are full of 

 eggs, which they exclude the instant they enter their last state. The 

 water-eft is continually climbing over the brims of the vessel, within 

 which we keep it in water, and wandering away ; and people every 

 summer see numbers crawling out of the pools where they are hatched 

 up the dry banks. There are varieties of them, differing in colour ; and 

 some have fins up their tail and back, and some have not.* 



* The fins or membrane upon the tail and back are an appendage to the males 

 only, and are developed at the season of their breeding. 



