Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 6.djvu/193

 us. vi. AUG. 24, 1912.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

157

St. Alban, whose son assumed the surname of Albani, hence Daubeney.

" The pedigree," it continues, " has been authen- tically deduced from the documents and archives in the College of Arms, and is registered there- from."

Mr. A. C. Fox-Davies substantiates the proofs verified by the Heralds' College, and in his ' Complete Guide to Heraldry ' (p. 147) writes :

" Fusils occur in the historic arms of Daubeney' from which family Daubeney of Cote, near Bristol, is descended, being one of the few families who have an undoubted male descent from a companion of William the Conqueror."

Here, then, we have plain proof of a family which can boast of a lineal male descent from the Conquest, and I am inclined to think it must be almost, if not absolutely, unique. CURIOUS.

TOADS AND POISON (11 S. vi. 87). In the Introduction to 'Animal Simples' (1899), by H. T. Fernie, it is observed that the supposed venom of the common toad was given against various diseases, such as bleedings, cancer, epilepsy, and troubles of the heart with dropsy. Dried toads (bufones exsiccati) and the ashes of toads (cineres bufonum) were ordered as authorized drugs in the eighteenth century ; and in the current Science Progress Dr. Hewlett tells us that

of England that if a dog should worry a toad the animal would become mad forthwith." But most writers of recent times have agreed in pronouncing the toad a harmless, much- abused animal.
 * ' a popular notion has prevailed in the West

In Patterson's ' Zoology for the Use of Schools ' (thirty-sixth thousand) we read :

" Perhaps no individual among the amphibia has been so slandered as the toad ; and if we did not know how often imagination takes the place of reason, it would seem incredible that this unoffending reptile should have been regarded AS highly poisonous from its bite, its breath, and even its glance ! "

Nevertheless, Dr. Hewlett now shows that the toad possesses glands in the neck which sesrete a white, milky substance, intensely bitter and somewhat acrid to the taste, the active principle of which phrynin exercises a powerful influence on the pulsa- tions of the heart, and when injected beneath the skin of a dog or a guinea-pig quickly proves fatal as a nervine poison. The result of numerous recent investigations is found to confirm views held by Pliny, Theophrastus, and the early English apothe- caries concerning the toad's poison. The

Lancet, commenting on Dr. Hewlett's con- clusions, adds further :

" The old practice of prescribing preparations of the toad as remedies for dropsy was not so absurd as might at first appear, for a fetid sub- stance is secreted by the toad's skin which is very like digitalin (from the foxglove), and hence it may have a favourable effect in cases of dropsy from heart affections."

In the article on the toad in ' Animal Simples,' p. 483, the writer says :

" The flesh of the toad is far from being venom- ous, and affords as wholesome nutriment as that of the frog, its thighs being constantly sold in Paris for those of frogs." .

TOM JONES.

Toads, salamanders, and newts can throw out poison from their skins. See Hans F. Gadow's ' Amphibia and Reptiles.' Any one who takes up a toad unskilfully may feel the fluid which it ejects on to the hand seizing it. If this fluid enters a scratch or cut, it may cause some inconvenience.

A few years ago I was told of a little village girl who was mentally " a bit funny." In spite of her mother's remonstrances the child liked playing with creeping things, among them newts. As a result a newt " venomed " the end of one of her fingers, causing it to become deformed. " Old superstitions " have generally some basis ; they are not mere inventions. T. S. N.

GRAY'S ' ELEGY ' : TRANSLATIONS AND PARODIES (11 S. iii. 62, 144, 204, 338; iv. 90, 135). Mr. Otto Uebel, a student of this University, who is engaged on a study of Gray's influence in Germany, has furnished me with the following particulars supple- mentary to the information given at 11 S. iii. 62 :

F. W. Getter's translation did appear in the ' Gottinger Musenalmanach auf das Jahr 1771,' p. 125. See also the reprint of the ' Almanach ' in ' Deutsche Litteraturdenkmale des 18 und 19 Jahrhunderts,' No. 52/3, p. 60.

The translation of Mason's work ( :1 Th. Gray : Gedichte, mit Nachrichten von seinen Lebens- umstanden und Schriften, herausgegeben von W. Mason ; aus dem Englischen iibersetzt, Leipzig, 1776 ") contains a prose rendering of the English poems ; the Latin poems are merely reprinted.

Kosegarten's translation first appeared in the third volume of Kosegarten's ' Rhapsodieen,' 1801.

Seume's translation was first printed in his ' Obolen,' vol. i., Leipzig, 1796 ; reprinted in his ' Gesammelte Schriften,' W 7 iesbaden, 1825.

The following translations have not yet been mentioned in ' N. & Q.' :

[Georg Friedrich Niemeyer.] In " Sammlung aus einigen der beruhintesten englischen Dichter,