A boy might possibly have some warts on his hands after handling a toad; so might he after handling a jack-knife or looking at a steam engine; but the toad does not give the warts any more than the knife or the engine.
Cows giving bloody milk.—It is a common belief in the country that if one kills a toad his cows will give bloody milk. Cows will give bloody milk if the udder is injured in any way, whether a toad is killed or not. There is no connection whatever between the bloody milk and a killed toad.
Living without air and food.—Occasionally one reads or hears a story about a toad found in a cavity in a solid rock. When the rock is broken open it is said that the toad wakes up and hops around as if it had been asleep only half an hour. Just think for a moment what it would mean to find a live toad within a cavity in a solid rock. It must have been there for thousands, if not for millions of years, without food or air. The toad does not like a long fast, but can stand it for a year or so without food if it is in a moist place and supplied with air. It regularly sleeps four or five months every winter, but never in a place devoid of air. If the air were cut off the toad would soon die. Some careful experiments were made by French scientific men, and the stories told about toads living indefinitely without air or food were utterly disproved.
It is not difficult to see that one working in a quarry might honestly think that he had found a toad in a rock. Toads are not very uncommon in quarries. If a stone were broken open and a cavity found in it, and then a toad were seen hopping away, one might jump at the conclusion that the toad came out of the cavity in the rock. Is not this something like the belief that the little toads rain down from the clouds because they are most commonly seen after a shower?
Surveys and Maps.
In considering the suggestions made in this leaflet, we thought of the hundreds of schools throughout the state and wondered whether there might not be some difficulty in finding the ponds where the toads lay their eggs, and in finding some of the things described in the other leaflets.
The teachers and students in Cornell University found this difficulty in 1868 when the University opened. The great Louis Agassiz came to the University at the beginning to give a course of lectures on natural history. The inspiration of his presence and advice, and of those lectures, lasts to this day.
Agassiz, and the University teachers, who had many of them been his pupils, saw at once that the region around Ithaca must be full of interesting things; but they did not know exactly where to find them. Agassiz himself made some explorations, and the professors and students took hold of the work with the greatest enthusiasm. They explored the beautiful lake, the streams, hills, valleys, gorges, ponds and marshes. Careful notes were kept of the exact locality where every interesting thing was found and simple maps were made to aid in finding the places again. Finally, after several years, knowledge enough was gained to construct an accurate map for the use of all. A part of this map, showing only the most important features, is put into this leaflet to serve as a guide ([Fig. 123]).
It will be seen that the University is made the starting point. With a few hints it is believed that every school can make a good beginning this year on a natural history survey of the region near its school-house, and in the preparation of a map to go with the survey.
