Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XV.djvu/807

 m < the An ft TLEMCEN Mexican monarchy for its subjugation. In 1519 the Tlaxcalans resisted the march of Cor- tes, but, after being defeated in four battles, they submitted as vassals to Spain, but refused to abjure their religion. (See CORTES.) The city is said to have numbered at the time of the invasion about 20,000 families, and Sept. 18, the day of Cortes's entrance, is still cele- rated there. TLEMCEN, a town of Algeria, in the province .d 68 m. S. W. of the city of Oran ; pop. in 72, 18,722, including 3,000 French. It is e strongest Algerian fortress on the Moroc- l border, and one of the most picturesque ces of the country. It has about 30 mosques, e most magnificent being that of Sid Ibrahim. Trade and industry are active, and increasing in consequence of improved communications, was originally called Jiddah, and for several .turies was, with occasional interruptions, e capital of an independent kingdom, with a my vestiges of its former splendor remain. (See Histoire des rois de Tlemcen, from the Arabic, by the abbe" Barges, Paris, 1852.) In 16th century it fell under the domination the Turks, who allotted it to the dey of Al- giers. The inhabitants having revolted in 1670, the place was burned. The French, after a brief occupation, restored it in 1837 by treaty to Abd-el-Kader, and they did not recover pos- session until after partly destroying the town in 1842, since which time they have greatly strengthened the fortifications. TOAD, the common name of a well known family of anourous or tailless batrachians, the general character and anatomy of which have been described under AMPHIBIA and FROG. The lufonida}, which comprise the common toads, have a well developed tongue, jaws rather sharp at the edge but without teeth, thick and heavy body, and skin more or less covered with glandular warts which secrete an acrid fluid; the hind legs are but little longer than the anterior. According to Agas- siz, the toads should rank higher than the frogs, from their more terrestrial habits ; the embryonic web, which still unites the fingers of the frog, disappears in the toad, and the cutaneous glands of the skin do not exist in frogs. Toads, like frogs, absorb moisture by the skin, which is cast at intervals, coming off in lateral halves which are swallowed by the animal at a gulp ; the skin feels hard to the touch, and, according to Mr. Rainey ("Micro- scopic Journal," 1855), contains a layer ^ of earthy matter under the derm is effervescing with acids, considered by him the analogue of what becomes a continuous hard dermal skeleton in the testudinata. Like frogs, they have also a large sac resembling a bladder, often found filled with pure water, in no way connected with the kidneys, but formed of the allantois, serving as a reservoir of water and aiding in respiration, its walls being high- TOAD 777 ly vascular. The acrid fluid of the skin may be pressed out from two eminences like split beans just behind the head ; it comes forth in a jet, and will make the eyes smart severely if it touches them. The hyoid bone being ab- sent, the root of the tongue is attached ante- riorly in the concavity formed by the branches of the lower jaw, the free extremity pointing backward when at rest ; it is capable of pro- trusion in a reversed position so rapidly that the eye cannot follow it. They are not only inoffensive, but of great service to man in de- stroying noxious insects and larvse ; they usu- ally lie hid during the day, but come out at dusk in woods, fields, and gardens, in search of food, and are not unfrequently found in cellars and dark places about houses; their metamorphoses are of the same character as those described under FROG ; they live out of the water except during the breeding season in March or April ; during winter they remain torpid in holes and crevices, under stones, stumps, &c. ; they lay a great number of eggo Common European Toad (Bufo vulgaris). united into long strings, enclosed in a ge- latinous substance, generally two, which the male draws out with his hind feet. The spe- cies are less numerous than in the terrestrial and tree frogs ; they are found in both hemi- spheres, but unequally distributed, being most abundant in America, and least so in Europe, which has not a single species peculiar to it, both the common toad and the natterjack oc- curring also in Africa and Asia ; they are more abundant in Asia than in Africa, and only one is described in Australia; Dumeril and Bi- bron recognize only 35 species of lufonida> In the genus Intfo (Laur.) the tongue is ob- long, free posteriorly; anterior limbs four- toed and free, the posterior five-toed and semi- palmated; the tuberosity behind each eye, above the tympanum, porous and cushion- shaped ; head obtuse in front, the upper jaw descending directly downward so that the m- termaxillaries do not project in front of the cranium. The common European toad or pad- dock (B. vulgaris, Laur.), le crapaud of the French, is 3 to 3 in. long, of a lurid brown-
 * orts of surrounding tribes and even of the
 * pulation estimated at more than 100,000.