162 ° STUDY OF NATURAL HISTORY. 
brated Bruguire, deceived in like manner by using 
only his eyesight, adopts the same idea, and places * 
this supposed new genus close to that of Pholas, to 
some species of which it certainly bears no small 
resemblance. 
(101.) Perhaps, the most inveterate of all these 
sorts of prejudice is that which induces people to 
believe that frogs and toads can live for centuries in 
blocks of marble, impervious to air and of course 
to food. We are so repeatedly assured of this fact 
by writers in newspapers and periodicals, wherein 
all the circumstances, with names and dates, are 
given, that nothing but an actual series of experi- 
ments could demonstrate the truth or falsehood of 
such an alleged departure from the known laws of 
nature. Such experiments have accordingly been 
made, and the results have been just what might 
have been expected by any one accustomed to 
inductive and analogical reasoning. Yet, had not 
the trials here alluded to been made, it might have 
occurred to us as a singular fact, that out of so 
many recorded instances of toads being found in 
stones, no specimen of the broken nidus, and of 
the antediluvian reptile alleged to have been within, 
has never been submitted to the inspection of the 
scientific. Nothing would be more easy than to 
collect the fragments of the one, and preserve the 
other in a bottle of spirits. We hope, therefore, 
that the first of our readers, who is within a short 
distance of such a discovery, will take this hint, 
and, by sending us the toad and the stone, silence 

* Ency. Méth. pl. 170. 
wr! 
