424 CLASS REPTILIA. 



Such are certainly the reflections of a man of refined 

 feelings and a lover of nature. But, philosophically speak- 

 ing, we cannot consent to this marked sort of preference of 

 one genus or species at the expence of another. The toad fills 

 its proper place in nature as well as the frog. And how- 

 ever our peculiar prejudices may operate, we cannot doubt 

 for a moment that they are looked down on with an equal 

 eye by " the Lord of all," whose wisdom and power are 

 equally displayed in their conformation. 



Our countryman Bradley was the first who started the idea 

 of the separation of the toads and frogs into two distinct 

 genera. After him Laurenti supported the same theory, but 

 without much success. Messrs. de Laceprde and Dumeril have 

 better established the characters of this genus. M. Schnei- 

 der adopted, with little change, the principles of those writers, 

 merely adding, that in the toads, the thumb of the front ex- 

 tremities is separated from the other toes, and that the index 

 is very short. All the naturalists of our own days have ad- 

 mitted this division of the genus rana. 



The term rana is one of old usage in the Latin language, 

 as is proved by this line from the Georgics : 



" Et veterem in limo ranae cecinere querelam." 



It corresponds to the Greek expression BaTfa;)^of, from which 

 the whole order has been named, as the frog is justly consi- 

 dered the pi'ototype of this grand division of the reptile class. 

 The etymology of both these words appears to be somewhat 

 uncertain. Isidore derives rana from garrulitas, in conse- 

 quence of the noise which the frogs make in the neighbour- 

 hood of waters. This, we confess, appears to us somewhat far- 

 fetched, and not very unlike M. Menage's derivation of chess 

 from apud. Others derive it from the Hebrew pi, vocife- 

 ravit. BKTjaiT/oj, according to Aldrovandi, is a sort of ono- 

 matopeia, to represent the rough croaking of these animals, 



