Natural History Lore and Legend by F Edward Hulme first published in 1895 (2000)

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vanquished, and the spider stings it thickly and frequently, and the toad cannot
avenge itself, it bursts assunder, at least, the author of the Ortus Sanitatis says
it does, but whether this arises from venom or from vexation he does not explain.
If such a burst toad be near the toad-wort, it chews it and becomes sound again;
but if it happens that the wounded toad cannot get to the plant, another toad
fetches it and gives it to the wounded one. Topsell, in his Natural History,
vouches for this having been actually witnessed.
That the skin of the toad gives forth an acrid secretion which serves the
creature as a defence is established beyond doubt, but its hurtful properties have
been greatly exaggerated. Dryden refers to the lady who squeezed a toad into
her husband s wine, the inference being she was in heart murderous. Spenser
makes Envy ride upon a wolf and chew between his cankred teeth a venomous
tode, while Diodorus declares that toads were generated by the heat of the sun
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from the dead bodies of ducks putrefying in mud.11
Lily, in his Euphues, declares that the foule toade hath a faire stone in his
head, an idea that Shakespeare has immortalized in the beautiful lines that
remind us how:
Sweet are the uses of adversity,
Which, like the toad, ugly and venomous,
Yet wears a precious jewel in its head.
The crapaudine, or toad-stone, is of a dull brown colour. It was believed to
possess sovereign-virtue against poison from its changing colour when in the
presence of any noxious thing: hence it was often worn as a protection in finger
rings. Figs. 20 and 21 are good examples of this use. They are both from rings in
the Londesborough collection. The belief in the virtues of the toad-stone was not
only popular in England, but was one of the
fallacies accepted throughout Europe. Though
the stone is well known to geologists as a
variety of trap-rock, the accepted belief was
that it was found only in the head of the toad.
Fenton, writing in 1569, affirms that there is
found in the heads of old and great toads a
stone which they call borax or stelon, and Lupton, some fifty years afterwards,
writes: the crepaudia or toad-stone is very valuable, touching any part envenomed
by the bite of a rat, wasp, spider, or other poisonous beast it ceases the pain and
swelling thereof. Ben Jonson also refers to it in his play of The Fox. Albertus
Magnus, writing about 1275, adds the great wonder that this stone when taken
out of the creature s head has the figure of a toad upon it, while others declare
that the stone itself is of, the form of a toad. It is a treasure not easily to be
procured, for the toad envieth much that man should haue that stone, declares
Lupton, the author of A Thousand Notable Things, hence it was very necessary
to beware of useless counterfeits, and this old writer gives us a ready means of
detecting them. To know, says he, whether the toad-stone called crepaudia
be the righte and perfect stone or not, holde the stone before a toad so that he
may see it, and if it be a right and true stone the toad will leap towards it, and
make as though he would snatch it from you, a proceeding that must have
required a considerable amount of nerve on the part of anyone duly impressed
with the fear of the deadly venom of the creature.
The same ancient authority on the subject very obligingly gives a rare good
way to get the stone out of the toad. It suffices to put a great or overgrown toad,
first bruised in divers places, into an earthen pot: put the same into an ant s
hillocke, and cover the same with earth, which toad at length the ants will eat, so
that the bones of the toad and stone will be left in the pot. This certainly seems
simplicity itself, but, unfortunately, most authorities agree in saying that the stone,
to have any real virtue, should be obtained while the creature is yet alive. Porta
has his doubts on the whole matter, nevertheless he gives some hints that might
be of value to those of greater faith. There is a stone, he says, called
Chelonites the French name it Crapodina, which they report to be found in the
head of a great old Toad; and if it can be gotten from him while he is alive, it is
soveraign against poyson. They say it is taken from living toads in a red cloth, in
which colour they are much delighted; for while they sport themselves upon the
scarlet the stone droppeth out of their head and falleth through a hole made in
the middle into a box set under for the purpose, else they will suck it up again.
But I never met with a faithfull person who said that he had found it: nor could I
ever find one, though I have cut up many. Nevertheless, I will affirm this for truth
that those stones which are pretended to be taken out of Toads are minerals. But
the value is certain: if any swallow it down with poyson it will preserve him from
the malignity of it, for it runneth about with the poyson and asswageth the power
of it that it becometh vain and of no force. Boethius tells us how he watched
throughout a whole night an old toad that he had placed on a piece of scarlet
cloth, but is obliged to confess that nothing occurred to gratify the great pangs of
his whole night s restlessness, as the toad entirely declined to be lured into any
frivolities that might cause him the loss of his precious jewel.
Browne, in his exposure of the various popular errors current in his time,
presently arrives at this belief, but finds himself unable to express any very
definite opinion, and takes refuge in compromise. As for the stone, quoth he,
commonly called a Toadstone, which is presumed to be found in the head of
that animall, we first conceive it not a thing impossible, nor is there any substantiall
reason why in a Toad there may not be found such hard and lapideous concretions;
for the like we daily observe in the heads of Fishes, as Codds, Carps, and Pearches.
Though it be not impossible, yet it is surely very rare, as we are induced to believe
from inquiry of our own; from the triall of many who have been deceived and the
frustrated search of Porta, who, upon the explorement of many, could scarce
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finde one.12 Nor is it only of rarity, but may be doubted whether it be of existency,
or really any such stone in the head of a Toad at all. For though Lapidaries and
questonary enquires affirm it, yet the writers of Mineralls and natural speculators
are of another belief, conceiving the stones which bear this name to be a Minerall
concretion, not to be found in animalls but in fields. What therefore best
reconcileth these divided determinations may be a middle opinion; that of these
stones some are minerall and to be found in the earth; some animall, to be met
with in Toads, at least by the induration of their cranies. The first are many and
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