110 
FROGS, 
FROGS. 
I am tempted to address a few words to your readers on behalf 
of those highly useful, but pitilessly persecuted, creatures, the 
poor frogs. At this time of year they are met with in all damp 
places, and, to judge from the extraordinary antipathy exhibited 
towards them, one might be led to imagine that nothing more 
loathsome could exist; but let us remember nothing is created 
in vain, and before we join in or encourage any act offensive to 
the meanest animated form, inquire if we are justified in de¬ 
priving it of that life we have no power to return. The dreadful 
maiming and torture such things are often subject to is alto¬ 
gether unjustifiable; creatures of the inferior scale to which these 
belong, are either injurious, and therefore to be destroyed in the 
most humane manner at hand, or they are beneficial, and con¬ 
sequently man’s own interest should lead him to protect them. 
What is the case with frogs, and I may also include toads, for 
they are nearly identical in habits ? who ever knew them commit 
a blameful act ? where can it be pointed out and proved they have 
done harm? So little is the natural history of cold-blooded 
creatures studied, that there are many who believe these in par¬ 
ticular to be among the most dreaded. It is said frogs, and 
especially toads, are venomous, that they destroy vegetation, and 
I have heard them accused of eating fruit, strawberries being 
particularly alluded to. All these notions are equally erroneous ; 
no single instance can be authenticated in which injury has re¬ 
sulted from this much-feared venom : on the contrary, they are 
handled, aye, and even fondled with impunity by those who 
know their habits; and as regards their devouring either vege¬ 
tables or fruit, without entering on an analytic description of 
their formation, I may say it is impossible ; when they are found 
in strawberry beds, it is not the fruit they are seeking but the 
slugs, which do eat it; toads and frogs both live entirely on 
other smaller cold-blooded things, such as slugs, worms, and 
beetles, and are in their turn preyed on by those of a larger size, 
as snakes, &c. 
A little quiet observation of these creatures on a fine dewy 
morning, when worms are abundant on the surface, will do more 
