LECTURE VII. 
25 
Ss a perfectly innocent animal, and the tales re- 
lative to its supposed venom are now pretty well 
exploded. There are however some exotic spe- 
cies of Toad, which exsude a highly acrimonious 
and offensive moisture from their skin, and which 
is said to be of a corrosive or hurtful nature. 
In South-America is produced a highly sin- 
gular species of Toad, called the Pipa or Toad of 
Surinam. It is of large size, with a flattened and 
somewhat triangular head, and with all the toes 
of the fore-feet regularly divided into four parts 
at the tip; the hind-feet being widely webbed. 
The young are produced, not in the usual man- 
ner, but from numerous cells on the back of the 
animal. It appears however on accurate exa- 
mination, that even there they have undergone 
the general change from the tadpole to the com- 
plete animal, several having been observed in the 
form of tadpoles in the cells themselves. 
Before we leave the Frog tribe we should par- 
ticularize what has been sometimes called the 
Frog-Fish of Surinam, and which was once sup- 
posed to change from a Frog to a Fish. It is 
no other than the Tadpole or first state of a spe- 
cies of South-American Frog, which, when first 
