FROGS 79 
deposit their eggs freely in the ditches where they live; 
this humus, on becoming dry, turns to dust with its 
contents. Hence, if you wish to create a new genera- 
tion of frogs, you will proceed in this manner: take 
the fertile dust of the swamp or ditch where the frogs 
have made nests, moisten it with rain-water and put it 
in an earthen dish in a place exposed to the warm rays 
of the summer sun; see that it does not get dry, and keep 
it well sprinkled with the aforesaid rain-water, and you 
will notice first of all certain little balls, that swell up 
and emit a large number of little White frogs, which 
have only their forefeet and a tail, that afterwards di- 
vides into two parts, forming the hind feet; these little 
creatures become perfectly formed frogs." This experi- 
ment ought by all probabilities to succeed, but I have 
never had the honor of being able to confirm it, owing 
possibly to some lack of attention on my part, or to some 
unknown obstacle, which, however, may be found in my 
having carried out Father Kircher's rule to the letter, 
using, namely, the dried mud of the ditches, to obtain 
which I must perforce wait until summer-time, when 
all the frogs were already hatched. I have, however, 
observed that frogs and toads first appear after birth, 
in the swamps and ditches, shaped like a fish, not with 
forelegs alone, but without any legs, and having a long, 
flat and sharp-edged tail; and in this shape they swim 
about for days, feeding and growing; then they thrust 
out the two forelegs, and after several days, the two hind- 
legs, from a skin that covers the whole body; some time 
having elapsed, they cast their tail, which does not divide 
into two parts to form the legs, as Pliny and others be- 
lieved. This fact may be proven by anyone who will take 
the trouble to examine some newborn frogs by means 
