108 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



mind, however, will ponder and consider each feature of the case, 

 and will rather prefer to countenance a supposition based on ordinary 

 experience than an explanation brought ready-made from the domain 

 of the miraculous. While not the least noteworthy feature of these 

 cases is that included in the remark of Smellie respecting the tendency 

 of uneducated and superstitious persons to magnify what is uncom- 

 mon, and in his sage conclusion that, as a rule, such persons in the mat- 

 ter of their relations " are not to be trusted." 



But it must also be noted that we possess valuable evidence of a 

 positive and direct kind bearing on the duration of life in toads under 

 adverse circumstances ; and, as this evidence tells most powerfully 

 against the supposition that the existence of those creatures can be 

 indefinitely prolonged, it forms of itself a veritable court of appeal 

 in the cases under discussion. The late Dr. Buckland, curious to learn 

 the exact extent of the vitality of the toad, caused, in the year 1825, 

 two large blocks of stone to be prepared. One of the blocks was taken 

 from the oolite limestone, and in this first stone twelve cells were 

 excavated. Each cell was one foot deep and five inches in diameter. 

 The mouth of each cell was grooved so as to admit of two covers 

 being placed over the aperture ; the first or lower cover being of glass, 

 and the upper one of slate. Both covers were so adapted that they 

 could be firmly luted down with clay or putty ; the object of this dou- 

 ble protection being that the slate cover could be raised so as to inspect 

 the contained object through the closed glass cover without admitting 

 air. In the second or sandstone block a series of twelve cells was 

 also excavated ; these latter cells being, however, of smaller size than 

 those of the limestone block, each cell being only six inches in depth by 

 five inches in diameter. These cells were likewise fitted with double 

 covers. 



On November 26, 1825, a live toad kept for some time previous- 

 ly to insure its being healthy was placed in each of the twenty-four 

 cells. The largest specimen weiged 1,185 grains, and the smallest 115 

 grains. The stones and the immured toads were buried on the day 

 mentioned, three feet deep, in Dr. Buckland's garden. There they lay 

 until December 10, 1826, when they were disinterred -and their tenants 

 examined. All the toads in the smaller cells of the sandstone block 

 were dead, and from the progress of decomposition it was inferred 

 that they had succumbed long before the date of disinterment. The 

 majority of the toads in the limestone block were alive, and, curiously 

 enough, one or two had actualy increased in weight. Thus, No. 5, 

 which at the commencement of its captivity had weiged 1,185 grains, 

 had increased to 1,265 grains ; but the glass cover of No. 5's cell was 

 found to be cracked. Insects and air must, therefore, have obtained 

 admittance and have afforded nourishment to the imprisoned toad ; 

 this supposition being rendered the more likely by the discovery that 

 in one of the cells, the covers of which were also cracked and the ten- 



