Ellsworth American. [volume] (Ellsworth, Me.) 1855-current, 1910-12-14

sO1attTnlNG ABOUT TOADe.
Do They ssspit Venom and Can Thsy
Exist without Air?
TIE toad has broad hack hnd can beaf
mach Ill trsatment, o. certainly he weuid
not havs survived among ~ all thsss
ysarp. Men have always done thsis best,
o. worst, to get him into bad od0s, and
sven to-day, especially in country dis
tricts, where he 10 nightly engaged IN do
Ing good service at the expense Of slugs
and other noxious things, the toad bears
an evil reputation without in tho Lest de-
serving 1t.
People OF all nations and Of epssy aga
have testified to the sspoisonoue venom"
Of the toad. Gilbert White nave the
subject some attention but seems to have
been on the side OF the toad, Tor he says,
'ducks, buzzards, owls, stone curiews
and snakes eat them (toadsl with Inn
punity," and Kearton corrobofates him 20
far ae grass snakes arc concsrned. He
once knew OF quack who, On the occa-
sion Of visit to Selbofne sAste toad to
make the country people stare" .E3ut,"
adds our author, "afterward he drank
oil.p
The fact Of the matter il that the toad.
though be is much more polite than the
man in tbs matter Of splitting, does, whom
frightened, exude from his skin an acid
liquid which may be soms sort OF protec-
ton to him when hungry snake 10 con-
templating toad for supper, although, ~
we have seen, the snakes victim cannot
always make himself sufficiently uDpleas-
ant to save his own life or to endanger
that OF his enemy. Just a. country poo
pie will tell you to-day that toads ssspit
poison" (Which is absolutely untrue), 20
. hundred years ago testimony Was con-
stsntly forthcoming as to the calamities
which befeli any animal which 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 swelied from worrying toads",
and DR.. E. J. Clarke, q well-xnown
lecturer Of the period, declared himself to
be believer in "the opinion OF the vulgar
that toads spit venom. To support his
ideas he quoted asstory, told him by q
friend, concerning cat which jumped At
. toad in mistake for q mouse, uttered
loud cry Of agony and died in q few
minutes. Such wild stories as these,
which cannot have had an atom of truth
in them, did q good deal to preserve the
slroodv woiI-ost n hl;ahad v,~o3,,r;,a a n.;nat
the .venomous toad.
In other directions the unfortunate
reptile has suffered much at the hands
OF man. The chameleon has been igno-
rantly credited with being able to SUBJ
sist on air, but the toad from time i'm
memorial has been considered capable
OF dispensing even with that commodity.
The oft-told stories Of toads being dis
covered alive in solid blocks OF stone or
coal led one Herissant, Freuchman, in
the year 1777, to make experiments to
discover how much the common or gar
den toad would endure without dying.
He shut up three toads in sealed boxes
the Academy OF Sciences. At the end
OF eighteen months the boxes were opened
One of the toads was dead and the other
two living.
Nobody could doubt the authenticity of
the fact, says the historian, but the ex-
periments were severity criticised as well
as the observations which they seemed
to confirm. It was commended that some
air must have reached the prisoners
through an imperceptible hole, and
some proba bility was given to this con.
tention by the researches of DR.. Edwards,
published in 1917. The doctor observed
that toads shut up in boxes covered with
plaster and apparently deprived OF air
lived much longer than those treated in
the same way and placed under water.
Herissant's critics were, therefore, justified
in supposing that he had failed to make
his boxes air-tight, but no one seemed
to have denied the fact that two of the
miserable captives were able to live for
year and q half without food.
DR.. auckland, father of the famous
Frank, made some much more exhaustive
experiments upon toads. Two blocks OF
stone were taken, one OF porous limestone
and one OF compact sandstone. Twenty
four cells were cut in the stone, and in
November, 1925, live toad, whose weight
had been previously ascertained, was
placed in each cell. A glass plate was
sealed over each cavity and slat above
that, the two blocks Of stone being buried
three feet deep in DR.. Buckland's garden
Eiaven fnOnths later he atouoa x,ara dino