From the April 11, 1931, issue
By Science News
THE PRECIOUS JEWELS IN HIS HEAD ARE TWAIN
Did you ever stop to take a really good look at a toads eyes?
Just as many a plain-faced person is redeemed from ugliness by having fine eyes, so also does the toad find salvation from his ungraceful form, his abysmal mouth, his warty skin. His eyes are of beryl and chrysoprase.
In his almost-too-often-quoted line about the toad bearing a precious jewel in his head, Shakespeare was only repeating the current belief of his time, which was older than Aristotle. Though then it was believed that this jewel was concealed inside the toads broad cranium, it seems quite possible that the idea first arose from someones seeing a toads eye shining in the dusk by reflected light. For like most hunters that stalk their prey by half-light, the toad has highly reflecting surfaces on his eyes.