122 BUFONIDA. 
been made in order to try whether the Toads would die 
on being artificially embedded in masses of clay, of plaster 
of Paris, in wooden boxes surrounded by plaster, and in 
other similar circumstances; but hitherto all have failed, 
although in some of them the animals have certainly lived 
for a much longer period than could have been expected, 
prolonged sometimes to many months, or even to between 
one and two years. Upon the whole, it appears to me 
that whilst the many concurrent assertions of credible per- 
sons, who declare themselves to have been witnesses of the 
emancipation of imprisoned Toads, forbids us hastily to 
refuse our assent, or at least to deny the possibility of such 
a circumstance, it must be confessed that we still want 
better and more cautious evidence, to authorize our im- 
plicit belief in these asserted facts. The truth probably is, 
that a Toad may have lain hid in the hollow of a tree, 
during perhaps a whole autumn and winter, and found 
itself on the return of spring so far enclosed within its 
hiding place as to be unable to escape. As this animal 
requires but little respiration, and consequently but little 
food to support life, especially when in a state of entire 
inactivity, the smallest opening would be sufficient to ad- 
mit the requisite passage of air, and even the occasional 
ingress of a small insect; and afterwards, when the tree 
was cut up, the Toad may have been found enclosed, and 
the opening may have escaped detection. To believe that 
a Toad enclosed within a mass of clay, or other similar 
substance, shall exist wholly without air or food, for hun- 
dreds of years, and at length be liberated alive, and capable 
of crawling, on the breaking up of the matrix, now become 
a solid rock, is certainly a demand upon our credulity 
which few would be ready to answer. 
That Toads may be rendered very tame, and be made to 
