THE TOAD, (Bufo vulgaris,)
Whose very name seems to carry with it something of an opprobrious meaning, is not unworthy the attention of the observer of nature; for, though prejudice and false associations have affixed a stigma on certain species of animals, none of the works of our Creator are despicable, but all, the more minutely they are examined, the greater claim they are found to have to our admiration. Somewhat like the frog in the body, it also resembles that animal in its habits; but the frog leaps, while the Toad crawls. It is an error to suppose the Toad to be a noxious and venomous animal; it is as harmless as the frog, and, like some of the human kind, only labours under the stigma of undeserved calumny. Several stories have been related of its spitting poison, or knowing how to expel the venom it may have received from the spider or any other animals; but these fables have been long exploded. A curious and yet inexplicable phenomenon is that Toads have been said to be found alive in the centre of large blocks of stone, where they must have subsisted without food and respiration for a number of years. The following are recorded examples: In the year 1719, M. Hubert, professor of philosophy at Caen, was witness to a living Toad being taken from the solid trunk of an elm-tree. It was lodged exactly in the centre, and filled the whole of the space that contained it. The tree was in every other respect firm and sound. Dr. Bradley saw a Toad taken from the trunk of a large oak. In the year 1733, a live Toad was discovered by M. Grayburg in a hard and solid block of stone which had been dug up in a quarry in Gothland. On being touched with a stick upon the head, he informs us, it contracted its eyes as if asleep, and when the stick was moved gradually opened them. Its mouth had no aperture, but was closed round with a yellowish skin. On being pressed with the stick on the back, a small quantity of clear water issued from it behind, and it immediately died. A living Toad was found in a block of marble at Chillingham Castle, belonging to Lord Tankerville, near Alnwick, in Northumberland.
Some of these cases are related in a manner which renders it difficult to doubt that the observers described what they thought they saw; but the occurrence of the phenomena, as described, seems to be so utterly impossible that we are forced to suppose that those writers have been misled in some way. That there is some foundation for many of the stories in question we can have no doubt, but we must look forward to further observations for their explanation; as Mr. Bell says: “To believe that a Toad, inclosed within a mass of clay, or other similar substance, shall exist wholly without air or food, for hundreds of years, and at length be liberated alive, and capable of crawling, on the breaking up of the matrix, now become a solid rock, is certainly a demand upon our credulity which few would be ready to answer.”
With regard to the length of life of these animals, it is impossible to state anything decisive, but several facts prove that some of them have been gifted with astonishing longevity.
A correspondent of Mr. Pennant’s supplied him with some curious particulars respecting a domestic Toad, which continued in the same place for thirty-six years. It frequented the steps before the hall-door of a gentleman’s house in Devonshire. By being constantly fed, it was rendered so tame as always to come out of its hole in the evening when a candle was brought, and to look up as if expecting to be carried into the house, where it was frequently fed with insects. An animal of this description being so much noticed and befriended excited the curiosity of all who came to the house, and even females so far conquered the horrors instilled into them by their nurses as generally to request to see it fed. It appeared most partial to flesh-maggots, which were kept for it in bran. It would follow them on the table, and, when within a proper distance, would fix its eyes and remain motionless for a little while, apparently to prepare for the stroke which was to follow, and which was instantaneous. It threw out its tongue to a great distance, and the insect, stuck by the glutinous matter to its tip, was swallowed by a motion quicker than the eye could follow. After having been kept more than thirty-six years it was at length destroyed by a tame raven, which one day seeing it at the mouth of its hole pulled it out, and so wounded it that it died.