ADAPTATION FOR THE INDIVIDUAL 11g 
toad joined the circle. He came out of his dewy re- 
treat clean and fresh from his morning bath. I took 
him in my hands, and made him the subject of an im- 
mediate lesson. I showed to my pupils his eyes and 
his interesting method of handling them, his tongue 
and its strange insertion; showed them how to look 
into his mouth and look up his ears to his ear drums, 
and pointed out many other interesting facts. Then 
I told them how Cope had said that the toad had 
power to emit from its skin a fluid so nauseous that 
many an animal hesitates to eat it. This is the first 
peculiarity I had mentioned which I had not myself 
observed, and a scientific qualm came over my con- 
science. Why had I never verified this statement 
which I had so frequently repeated? On the impulse 
of the moment, with the bright, clean skin of the 
creature fresh from the dewy grass, making it less 
than usually repulsive, I ran my tongue up its back 
only to find that it had no taste whatever. I was of 
course surprised, but I was not foolish enough to 
deny, as the result of one observation, the statement 
of a good scientist. The observation, moreover, was 
one which I naturally did not care to repeat with any 
frequency. Of one thing I was sure, toads do not al- 
ways have an unpleasant taste. 
A year later I had a class down by the side of a 
neighboring pond. The pool was not an attractive 
