Genre:

News-Commentary, Drollery

Subjects:

Animal Behaviour, Monstrosities

    Discusses a story in the Northern Daily Star of a horse in Newcastle whose illness was traced to a living frog (rather than worms) which the horse had 'swallowed when drinking'. Adds that the frog has been 'preserved in spirit' to satisfy those who believe it might be 'some sort of polypus'. Notes the difficulty of supposing that reptiles 'are capable of existing as Entozoa' by pointing to fables of frogs and toads inside old women and the discovery of 'Batrachians [frogs] [...] in the hearts of solid oak trees'. Concludes by suggesting that the frog in the Newcastle horse is analogous to those 'in the conglomerate' which Roualeyn G G Cumming was supposed to send to Richard Owen.