THE TOAD. 59 



both of them were corrupted, yet one was full of 

 poison, and the other resisted poison. As for reme- 

 dies, the only effectual one was of rather a com- 

 plicated nature, and consisted of plantain, black 

 hellebore, powdered crabs, the blood of the sea- 

 tortoise mixed with wine, the stalks of dogs' tongues, 

 the powder of the right horn of a hart, cummin, the 

 vermet of a hare, the quintessence of treacle, and the 

 oil of a scorpion, mixed and taken ad libitum. 



Even in the days when this prodigious prescription 

 was invented, some good was acknowledged to exist 

 in a toad, the one being the precious jewel in its 



THE COMMON TOAD. 



head, and the other its power as a styptic. Suppos- 

 ing any one to fall down and knock his nose against 

 a stone, he could instantly stop the bleeding if he 

 only had in his pocket a toad that had been pierced 

 through with a piece of wood and dried in the shade 

 or smoke. All that was requisite was to hold the 



