New Britain herald., 1928-03-15
MYTHS CLING TO l SNAKES AND T0ADS
They Have Been Slanderd Since
 the Day Of Adam

New York. March IS U4l-Toads and snakes are slandered more ire 1 ouently than any other creatures in the lower geological scale. says pr. C. Kingsley Hobls, curator of rep tiles and anphilta at the American 1 Museum, of Natural History. Thousands ot persons who visit the museum-most Of them are from out Of consequently still believe that toads give warts. that they can live for indefinite periods without air or food and that they are poisonous to 'he touch Harm less snakes have even worse repu- tations,
 Traditions handed down for gen erations are responsible for this mis- information. pr. Noble points out Long ago the garden toad and the equally docilo non poisonous serpent were credited with being incarna- tions of evil. and the superstitions woven around them are hard to dis pei.
 Many Of the yarns about snakes are reflected in the popular names given 10 various species" observes the zooioEiSt. The hoop snake. the milk snake and the whip snake are examples.
 mouth and roll Tn the form of . hoop. yet many people in the south, ] where the hoop snake lives believe 1 that 1t can do such a trick AS a matter Of fact he is quite harmless and not at all aggressive
 The whip snake is ofen said to Jump at people and lash them to death with its long tall. No snakes and only 0 few lizards use their tails as means of offense or defense.
 The milk snake gets its name a. well as it's unsavory reputation from, the fact that it is often found lr cow barns, a coincidence that is at. triioutahie to its fondness for mice rather than to any inclination for ability 10 milk the COWS.
 Many northern water snakes ars enormously called moccasins and are popularly regarded as poisonous The true moccasin. which is poison ons. is found only in the south. eastern part of @hc country. IL is a near relative of the coprerhead. : "Oth"r faliacies are that snakes will rursue human beings and that they can strike moro than their own length. The facts are that no snake will intentionally chase a person and that none can strike more than three-quarters or it's length"
 Stories of toads and lizards found alive i'll apparently air-tight rock pockets are fairly common. although tow get the publicity attained by the new famous horned toad--a species of lizard-that is said to have lived tor more than 30 years in a corner stone in Eastland. Texas
 Tt is hiologically impossible for a vertebrate animal to live without oxygen,' says pr. Nohle. Some creatures. notably the lower worms, generate oxygen in their own bodies, but this supply Is not large enough to allow them to exist in tho ground tor long periods with access to air. When q toad Is found alive in a rock pocket it is safe to assume that he has been getting air from a crevice. To test the popular belief that these creatures could live indefinite ly without oxygen. British zoo- logist sealed lc toads in separte l holes bored into a block of porous limestone. Another dozen were in- prisoned in dense sandstone. After /, 54 weeks the blocks were unsealcd. The toads ill tho porous blocks were cmaciated but alive. for enough oxygen and moisture had seeped through the coarse stone 10 sustain life. The dozen in the Gne sand stone Were dead.