men have been nicknamed “Frogs” because of their predilection for frogs’ 
legs. But they are not alone in this custom, as a cursory examination of 
the advertising matter of some American sporting journals will show. 
Advertisements of canned frogs’ legs, the “technique of frog farming in 
ten easy lessons” and “mating frogs for sale” would seem to indicate that 
some Americans are also addicted to frog flesh. In some oriental countries 
dried frogs and salamanders are used for curative purposes, although their 
therapeutic value is questionable. Tanned frog skins also serve in the manu¬ 
facture of fancy key-holders and purses, and in Japan toadskins are made 
into fine leather. 
As we shall discover in the text to follow, some South American tribes 
utilize poison frogs in tipping the barbed shafts of their arrows. And not 
a few thirsty Australian natives have relieved their parched throats by 
squeezing certain flatheaded burrowing frogs, from each of which they 
can press enough water to fill a wine glass. 
But indeed the amphibians’ greatest use to man has been as the ideal 
laboratory animal. According to Noble some of our most fundamental dis¬ 
coveries in general physiology, endocrinology and embryology have been 
made with amphibian material. 
Many myths surround the amphibians, chief of which concerns the 
warty toad, supposed to impart its lumpy blemishes to anyone handling it, 
and the salamander which, because of its cold, slimy skin, is supposed to 
live through fire. Equally famous are the tales of “showers of frogs” still 
told and believed by many people. In fact there is a certain scientific au¬ 
thority for this belief since many terrestrial species have the habit of con¬ 
cealing themselves during dry periods only to issue forth in great numbers 
to greet the return of the rains. 
While the amphibians figure but insignificantly in the human scheme, 
their numbers, universality and importance in animal evolution make them 
well worth knowing. Many distinguished American naturalists such as Hol¬ 
brook, Cope, Dickerson, Fowler, Holmes, Stejneger, Barbour, the Wrights, 
Gaige, Dunn, Noble, Bishop — to mention but a few — have concerned 
themselves with the life histories of amphibians. 
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