Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1908-09-01
SOMETHING ABOUT TOADS.
Do They "Spit Venom" and Can They
Exist Without Air?

Do They "Spit Venom" and Can They
Exist Without Air?
The toad has a broad back and can
bear much i'll treatment, or certainly he
would not have survived among us all
these years. Men have always done
their best. or worst, to get him into bad
odor. and even today, especially in
country districts, where he is nightly
engaged in doing good service at the
expense of slugs and other noXious
things. the toad bears an evil reputa-
ton without in the least deserving 1t.
People of all nations and of every age
have testified to the poisonous venom
of the toad Gilbert White gave the
subject some attention, but seems to
have been on the side Of the toad, for
he says ducks, buzzards, owls, stone
curlews and snakes eat them (toads)
with impunity." and Kearton corrobo-
rates him so far as grass snakes are
concerned. He once knew of a quack
who on the OCCASION of a visit to Sell
borne late a toad to make the country
people stare" But" adds our author,
"afterward he drank OIL"
The fact of the matter is, says the
Pail Mall Gazette, that the toad, though
he is much more polite than man in
the matter of splitting, does when fright
cned eXude from his skin an acid liquid
which may be some sort of protection
to him when a hungry snake is con-
templating toad for supper, although,
as we have seen, the snakes victim
cannot always make himself sufficiently
unpleasant to save his own life or to
ondanger that of his enemy. Just as
country people will tell you today that
toads spit poison" (Which is absolute
" untrue). so a hundred years ago
testimony was constantly forthcoming
as to the calamities which befell any
animal that dared to interfere with the
detestable creature. A writer to the
Magazine of Natural History early in
the last century testified that he had
seen the mouths of dogs "fearfully
f. ]. Clarke, a we'll known lecturer of
the period, declared himself to be a
believer in the opinion of the vulgar
that toads spit venom" To support his
ideas he quoted a story, told him by a
friend, concerning a cat belonging to
third person. which jumped at toad
in mistake for a mouse, uttered loud
cry of agony and died in few min
utes." Such wild stories as these,
which can not have had an atom of
truth in them. did a good deal to pre-
serve the already well-established pre-
iudice against the "venomOus toad"
In other directions the unfortunate
reptile has suffered much at the hands
of man. The chameleon has been ig-
norantly credited with being able to
subsist on air, but the toad from time
immemoral has been considered capa-
BILE of dispensing even with that COM
modify The Oft-told stories Of toads
being discovered alive in solid blocks
Of stone or coal led one Herissant a
/ fiehcHlIlall' III 'iIe He'i 1''' w many
experiments to discover how much the
common or garden toad would endure
without dying. He shut up three toads
in sealed boxes in plaster, and they
were deposited in the Academy of Sci
ence. At the end of eighteen months
the boxes were opened, one of the
toadS being dead and the other two liV-
ing Nobody could doubt the authen-
ticity of the facts, says the historian,
but the experiments were severely crit
icised. as we'll as the observations
which they seemed to confirm. 1t was
contended that some air must have
reached the prisoners through an i'm