SOME FACTS AND FICTIONS OF ZOOLOGY. 109 



ant of which was dead, numerous insects were found. No. 9, weigh- 

 ing originally 988 grains, had increased during its incarceration to 

 1,116 grains ; but No. 1, which in the year 1825 had weighed 924 

 grains, was found in December, 1826, to have decreased to 698 grains ; 

 and No. 11, originally weighing 836 grains, had likewise disagreed 

 with the imprisonment, weighing only 652 grains when examined in 

 1826. 



At the period when the blocks of stone were thus prepared, four 

 toads were pinned up in holes five inches deep and three inches in 

 diameter, cut in the stem of an apple-tree ; the holes being firmly 

 plugged with tightly fitting wooden plugs. These four toads were 

 found to be dead when examined along with the others in 1826 ; and 

 of four others inclosed in basins made of plaster-of -Paris, and which 

 were also buried in Dr. Buckland's garden, two were found to be dead 

 at the end of the year, their comrades being alive, but looking starved 

 and meager. The toads which were found alive in the limestone block 

 in December, 1826, were again immured and buried, but were found 

 to be dead, without leaving a single survivor, at the end of the second 

 year of their imprisonment. 



These experiments may fairly be said to prove two points. They 

 firstly show that even under circumstances of a favorable kind when 

 compared with the condition popularly believed in namely, that of 

 being inclosed in a solid rock the limit of the toad's life may be 

 assumed to be within two years ; this period being no doubt capable 

 of being extended when the animal possesses a slight advantage, ex- 

 emplified by the admission of air and insect-food. And, secondly, we 

 may argue that these experiments show that toads when rigorously 

 treated, like other animals, become starved and meager, and by no means 

 resemble the lively, well-fed animals reported as having emerged from 

 an imprisonment extending, in popular estimation, through periods 

 of inconceivable duration. These tales are, in short, as devoid of ac- 

 tual foundation as are the modern beliefs in the venomous properties 

 of the toad, or the ancient beliefs in the occult and mystic powers of 

 various parts of its frame when used in incantations. Shakespeare, 

 while attributing to the toad venomous qualities, has yet immortalized 

 it in his famous simile, by crediting it with the possession of a " pre- 

 cious jewel." But even in the latter case the animal gets but scant 

 justice ; for science strips it of its poetical reputation, and in this, 

 as in other respects, shows it, despite fable and myth, to be an inter- 

 esting but commonplace member of the animal series. Gentleman 's 

 Magazine. 



