i88 5 .] 
Poison-Secreters. 
667 
be instilled into the human or other animal body, — such as 
a sting, a rostrum, grooved teeth, or indeed teeth of any 
kind, — its innocence was distinctly proclaimed. And inno- 
cent he rivioubtedly is, to man. He may he handled with 
absolute safety, as we know from abundant experience. 
Still, foi all this, the toad is venomous. Everyone who 
knows a toad from a frog must have noticed the pustules 
with which the skin of the former is in many parts covered. 
These pustules secrete a watery liquid, the chemical com- 
position of which is by no means fully known, but which is 
unquestionably poisonous. In proof, if the courteous reader 
thinks proper to apply a little of this liquid to his lips, or to 
his eyeball,— painful experiments on an animal which may 
be performed without the gracious permission of the Home 
Secretary, but which I do not recommend,— he will feel a 
very considerable degree of irritation, and in case of the eye 
he may very probably require medical advice. Several other 
Batrachians are similarly provided. They are utterly unable 
to bite, sting, or otherwise insert venom into the human 
system, but the secretions of their skins or of their pustules 
are unquestionably poisonous, and if applied to a wound, or 
to a mucous membrane, injury will result. Even the com- 
mon frog in his unskinned condition is not quite to be 
trusted in this respedt. 
My late friend Thomas Belt mentions a red and blue 
frog, common in Nicaragua, which is avoided by fowls and 
ducks. He managed to induce a young duck to snatch up 
one of the little frogs. “ Instead ot swallowing it, however, 
it instantly threw it out of its mouth, and went about 
jerking its head as if trying to throw off some unpleasant 
taste.” 
But of all Amphibians the earth salamander, Salatnandra 
terrestns, enjoys in the countries where it occurs the most 
evil reputation. It was supposed to be able to kill by a 
meie touch, according to some rustic sages even by a look, 
and to render vegetables unwholesome merely by creeping 
ovei them. In the second quarter of this century it was 
fai from uncommon near mountain streams on the frontiers 
of Bohemia, Moravia, and Hungaiy, where its jet-black 
colour, relieved by irregular yellow or orange blotches, made 
it a very conspicuous objedt. To pelt this inoffensive 
cieature with stones from behind a tree-trunk was consi- 
dered among the village boys of those parts a very heroic 
leat. 
Not a few fishes, mollusks, and crustaceans enjoy also the 
tepute of being dangerous, or even deadly, if swallowed, — 
2 y 2 
