find written of it: "Toads produce a stone, with their
own image sometimes. It hath very great force against malignant
tumours that are venomous. They are used to heat it in a bag, and to
lay it hot, without anything between, to the naked body, and to rub
the affected place with it. They say it prevails against inchantments
of witches, especially for women and children bewitched. So soon as
you apply it to one bewitched it sweats many drops. In the plague it
is laid to the heart to strengthen it." Another physician of the same
period (see "Notes and Queries," fourth series, vol. vii, 1871, p.
540) appears to be affected by the new spirit of inquiry, for he
relates the old traditions about the stone and how he tested them. He
says it was reported that the stone could be cut out of the toad's
head. (In the book called "Hortus Sanitatis," dated 1490, there is a
picture, here reproduced [Fig. 4], of a gentleman performing this
operation successfully on a gigantic toad.) Our sceptical physician,
however, goes on to say that it was commonly believed that these
stones are thrown out of the mouth by old toads (probably the tongue
was mistaken for the stone), and that if toads are placed on a piece
of red cloth they will eject their "toad-stones," but rapidly swallow
them again before one can seize the precious gem! He says that when he
was a boy he procured an aged toad and placed it on a red cloth in
order to obtain possession of "the stone." He sat watching the toad
all night, but the toad did not eject anything. "Since that time," he
says, "I have always regarded as humbug ('badineries') all that they
relate of the toad-stone and of its origin." He then describes the
actual stone which passes as the toad-stone, or "_Bufonius lapis_,"
and says that it is also called batrachite, or brontia, or ombria. His
description exactly corresponds with the "toad-stones" which are well
known at the present day in collections of old rings.

[Illustration: Fig. 5.--The palate of the fossil fish Lepidotus,
showing the stud-like teeth in position. These are often found singly,
and stained of a dull brown colour by the rock in which they were
embedded. It was the colour of these fossil teeth, like that of a
toad's body, which led to the assertion that they were produced in the
head of the toad. _a._ A single detached tooth or "toad-stone" seen
from the bright unattached surface. _b._ The same seen from the
attached surface. _c._ A section of