120 THE MEANING OF EVOLUTION 
one, and I had picked from it a more than commonly 
unappetizing looking toad, which proved to be a 
mother which had not yet laid her eggs. As I held 
her in my hands and exhibited her various points to 
my pupils, I told them of Prof. Cope’s statement. I 
also told them of my unsuccessful attempt the previ- 
ous year to verify the statement. I added, however, 
that I would not repeat this experiment on this un- 
appetizing specimen. Hereupon the toad not only 
exuded, but squirted, from a gland over her left 
shoulder blade a fluid, milky-like in appearance, and 
forming a jet as thin as a needle, but ejected with 
force enough to strike my face, which was at least 
fifteen inches away. I moistened my finger on my 
tongue, lifted the fluid from my cheek, and tasted it. 
Cope was right. A toad can exude a most nauseous 
fluid. Horsechestnuts extracted and distilled might 
possibly provide something as bitter. Why did I not 
find this in the preceding case? I have too few obser- 
vations on which to base a conclusion, but I have a 
suspicion as‘to the reason. In the case of the toad 
which spurted the fluid in my face, we had a creature 
with whose life were tied up the lives of her many 
offspring, to be produced from the eggs she was 
so soon to lay. Under conditions like these, na- 
ture is more than commonly careful of her children. 
Whether this be the reason or not, toads do not al- 
