delivered by Plutarch,* that the brain thereof is a pleasant bit, but that it causeth the headache. Which, notwithstanding, the luxurious emperor † could never taste, though he had at his table many a phoenicopterus, yet had he not one phoenix; for though he expected and attempted it, we read not in Lampridius that he performed it; and, considering the unity thereof, it was a vain design, that is, to destroy any species, or mutilate the great accomplishment of six days. And although some conceive-and it may seem true, that there is in man a natural possibility to destroy the world in one generation; that is, by a general conspire to know no woman themselves, and disable all others also,yet will this never be effected. And therefore Cain, after he had killed Abel, were there no other woman living, could not have also destroyed Eve; which, although he had a natural power to effect, yet the execution thereof the providence of God would have resisted; for that would have imposed another creation upon him, and to have animated a second rib of Adam.

CHAPTER XIII.

Of Frogs, Toads, and Toad-stone.

CONCERNING the venomous urine of toads, of the stone in the toad's head,7 and of the generation of frogs, concep *De Sanitate Tuenda.

+ Heliogabalus.

yképalov, and the Latines cerebrum, and wee the brain. But of this ridiculous mistake, and the occasion of itt, see that merie passage of Muret (lib. XII. cap. xii. Variorum), worth the view, which itt seemes this doctor had not read.-Wr.

A similar criticism occurs in the Gentleman's Magazine for 1829, p. 420. It is very singular that these critics, especially the dean, should not have remarked that Sir Thomas was perfectly aware of this homonymy, as he called it (page 279), and by the expression here used, "if strictly taken for the phoenix," he evidently means that it is not so to be taken, but to be understood as referring to the fruit of the palm

tree.

7 Concerning, &c.] The story of the jewel in the toad's head, cele brated in Shakspeare, must be classed among fables. Toads have un formly been considered objects of aversion, and very generally are be lieved to be venomous. On this point contrary opinions have been held even by naturalists of the present day. Cuvier expressly denies it ; the

And

tions are entertained which require consideration. first, that a toad pisseth, and this way diffuseth its venom,

English editors of Cuvier's Animal Kingdom discountenance, though they do not absolutely deny, the accusation (vol. ix. 451); observing that toads are comparatively harmless: that when surprised, they distil from the tubercles on the skin a white and fetid humour ;-shoot a peculiar fluid from the anus; and attempt to bite. But their bite occasions no great inconvenience, merely producing at times a slight inflammation. They assert that neither the liquid ejaculated from the anus, nor that which oozes from the skin, is venomous; yet they admit that, when swallowed, these fluids have produced violent nausea, &c. M. Bosc asserts that the same symptoms will be occasioned by putting the hand to the nose after handling the toad. Schelhammer mentions a child which had a severe pustulory eruption from having had a toad held some minutes before its mouth. They describe the liquid as very bitter, acrid, and caustic. In the 64th vol. of Tilloch's Philosophical Magazine, there is a paper, by Mr. Fothergill, on the manners and habits of the toad, in which he professes to prove "not only its innocency, but its usefulness." He relates many observations, proving its utility as a destroyer of caterpillars, &c. ;-but in proof of their harmlessness he only offers the following expression of his own opinion. "The writer hopes he has established the character of toads as to their usefulness; and that they are devoid of all poisonous or venomous qualities whatever, he is perfectly satisfied, from many years' observation and experience, having handled them in all directions, opened their mouths, and given them every opportunity and every provocation to exert their venomous powers, if possessed of any." In short, he believes them to be the most patient and harmless of all reptiles!

Dr. John Davy, in a paper read before the Royal Society, Dec. 22, 1825, asserts the accuracy of the ancient opinion, that the toad is poisonous, but he does not appear to have made any new discovery of importance, unless it be that the fluid, secreted on the back, and existing in the bile, the blood, and the urine of the animal, is not injurious, much less fatal, when absorbed and carried into circulation. Other naturalists have admitted the acrid nature of the fluid, and even, in certain cases, its deleterious effects when taken into the stomach, who maintain that it is not venomous. On the whole, Dr. Davy does not appear to have proved that the toad is to be classed among venomous reptiles, properly so called.

White says, "he well remembers the time, when a quack, at this village, ate a toad to make the country people stare." He mentioned, from undoubted authority, that "some ladies took a fancy to a toad, which they nourished summer after summer for many years, till he grew to a monstrous size, with the maggots which turn to flesh flies. The reptile used to come forth every evening from a hole under the garden steps, and was taken up, after supper, on the table to be fed. He fell a sacrifice at length to a tame raven."

The fluid, ejected from the anus of toads and frogs (especially R. temporaria), is not urine.

is generally received, not only with us, but also in other parts; for so hath Scaliger observed in his comment, Aversum urinam reddere ob oculos persecutoris perniciosam ruricolis persuasum est; and Matthiolus hath also a passage, that a toad communicates its venom not only by urine, but by the humidity and slaver of its mouth;8 which, notwithstanding, strictly understood, may admit of examination: for some doubt may be made whether a toad properly pisseth, that is, distinctly and separately voideth the serous excretion; for though not only birds, but oviparous quadrupeds and serpents have kidneys and ureters, and some fishes also bladders; yet for the moist and dry excretion they seem at last to have but one vent and common place of exclusion; and with the same propriety of language we may ascribe that action unto crows and kites. And this not only in frogs and toads, but may be enquired in tortoises: that is, whether that be strictly true, or to be taken for a distinct and separate miction, when Aristotle affirmeth, that no oviparous animal, that is, which either spawneth or layeth eggs, doth urine, except the tortoise.

The ground or occasion of this expression might from hence arise, that toads are sometimes observed to exclude or spirt out a dark and liquid matter behind:1 which we have observed to be true, and a venomous condition there may be perhaps therein; but some doubt there may be, whether this is to be called their urine, not because it is emitted aversely

8 not only by urine, &c.] A strange and horrible example of this (toade killing by the mouth) there fel out in Dorset, not far from my habitation. A countrywoman, having the young sonne of a great person to nurse, willing to visit her reapers in the next field, but not willing to leave the childe alone in the house asleep, took itt with her; and while shee distributed some drinke to the workers, layd the childe at the foote of a barley-cock: whome, when shee came to take up againe, shee found dade and swolen, and turning up the cloaths of the childe, found a huge toade hanging fast on the bellicock of the child, which the venomous beast had wholy swalowed, and by that quil diffused his deadly poison into all the vital parts of the infant; at which sight the poore woman fell distracted.—Wr.

9 miction.] Not in Johnson: evidently a coinage from the Latin word, mingo.

1 behind.] And I have often seen this spirting, which the vulgar rationally call pissing, though itt be not urine, but certainlye something analogicall.-Wr.

or backward by both sexes, but because it is confounded with the intestinal excretions and egestions of the belly; and this way is ordinarily observed, although possible it is that the liquid excretion may sometimes be excluded without the other.2

As for the stone commonly called the toad-stone, which is presumed to be found in the head of that animal, we first conceive it not a thing impossible; nor is there any substantial reason why, in a toad, there may not be found such hard and lapideous concretions: for the like we daily observe in the heads of fishes, as cods, carps, and perches; the like also in snails, a soft and exosseous animal, whereof in the naked and greater sort, as though she would requite the defect of a shell on their back, nature, near the head,3 hath placed a flat white stone, or rather testaceous concretion : which, though Aldrovandus affirms, that after dissection of many he found but in some few, yet of the great grey snails4 I have not met with any that wanted it; and the same indeed so palpable, that without dissection it is discoverable by the hand.

Again, though it be not impossible, yet it is surely very rare; as we are induced to believe from some enquiry of our own, from the trial of many who have been deceived, and the frustrated search of Porta, who, upon the explorement of many, could scarce find one. Nor is it only of rarity, but may be doubted whether it be of existency, or really any such stone in the head of a toad at all. For although lapidaries and questuary enquirers affirm it, yet the writers of minerals and natural speculators are of another belief: conceiving the stones, which bear this name, to be a mineral

2 and this way is, &c.] This sentence was first added in the 6th edit. 3 near the head.] In the very same place on the top of the back, where the shell of the other snayle is fastened.— Wr.

grey snails.] I have heard itt avowched by persons of great quality, contemporarye to the old Lord Burleigh, Lord Treasurer of Englande, that hee alwayes wore a blue ribbon (next his leg, garter-wise) studded (thick) with these shels of the grey snayles, to allaye the heate of the goute, and that hee profest that hee found manifest releef in itt; and that yf by chance hee lefte itt off, the paine would ever returne most vehementlye.—Wr.

5 this name.] Toadstone, or bufonite, a species of traprock, called amygdaloid. It occurs in the traprock of Derbyshire, near Matlock.

And

concretion, not to be found in animals, but in fields. therefore Boëtius refers it to asteria or some kind of lapis stellaris, and plainly concludeth, reperiuntur in agris, quos tamen alii in annosis, ac qui diu in arundinetis, inter rubos sentesque delituerunt, bufonis capitibus generari pertinaciter affirmant.

Lastly, if any such thing there be, yet must it not, for aught I see, be taken as we receive it, for a loose and moveable stone, but rather a concretion or induration of the crany itself; for being of an earthy temper, living in the earth, and as some say feeding thereon, such indurations may sometimes happen. Thus when Brassavolus after a long search had discovered one, he affirms it was rather the forehead bone petrified, than a stone within the crany; and of this belief was Gesner. Which is also much confirmed from what is delivered in Aldrovandus, upon experiment of very many toads, whose cranies or sculls in time grew hard, and almost of a stony substance. All which considered, we must with circumspection receive those stones which commonly bear this name, much less believe the traditions, that in envy to mankind they are cast out, or swallowed down by the toad; which cannot consist with anatomy, and with the rest enforced this censure from Boëtius, ab eo tempore pro nugis habui quod de bufonio lapide, ejúsque origine traditur. What therefore best reconcileth these divided determinations, may be a middle opinion; that of these stones some may be mineral, and to be found in the earth, some animal, to be met with in toads, at least by the induration of their cranies. The first are many and manifold, to be found in Germany and other parts; the last are fewer in number, and in substance not unlike the stones in crabs' heads. This is agreeable unto the determination of Aldrovandus,* and is also the judgment of the learned Spigelius† in his epistle unto Pignorius.8

But these toadstones, at least very many thereof, which are esteemed among us, are at last found to be taken not + Musei Calceolariani, sect. iii.

* De Mineral. lib. iv.

6 Which is also, &c.] First in 2nd edition.

7 toad.] See an account of a toad being found in a duck's egg, Literary Panorama, Aug. 1807, p. 1083.-Jeff.

• What, therefore, &c.] First in 2nd edition.