1895-96-] Popular Delusions in Natural History. 185 



only a few months ago since a case was narrated in the ' New- 

 castle Chronicle.' I shall only further allude to a particularly 

 amusing " newspaper scrap " which the late Mr Frank Buck- 

 land tells us he found among some of his father's notes. 

 Here the writer, after relating the finding of a live frog by 

 two miners in a block of coal in a pit near Bathgate, informs 

 us that " it inspires us with a kind of fear to be brought into 

 contact with a living being that has in all probability breathed 

 the same air as Noah, or disported in the same limpid stream 

 in which Adam bathed his sturdy limbs." 



I daresay you have all heard of the late Dean Buckland's 

 experiments, made with the purpose of ascertaining how long 

 toads and frogs could live shut up in cavities of stone and 

 excluded from air and food, with the result that most of 

 them were dead within a year, and none survived more than 

 two. The worthy Dean, who of course could not believe 

 such nonsense as that presented to us in the usual stories, 

 was inclined to seek for an explanation of the popular belief 

 as to this matter by supposing that a frog or toad when very 

 young and small might creep through a crevice into a cavity 

 of the rock, and finding food in insects, which might also 

 creep into the same hole for shelter, might increase in size, 

 and ultimately grow too big to get out by the same way 

 as it got in, and so might be found by the quarryman or 

 miner, who would in all probability overlook the existence 

 of the supposed passage of entry. 



For my own part, I have not the slightest doubt that the 

 real explanation of these alleged occurrences of frogs and 

 toads enclosed in stone is simply the habit of rushing at 

 conclusions, combined with the want of power of accurate 

 observation, which so eminently characterises the uneducated 

 mind. A stone is being broken, a frog is seen hopping about 

 close to the place, and forthwith the lively imagination of the 

 quarryman persuades him that he has seen it actually come 

 out of a cavity in the rock. 



It only remains to be said that there is no example of such 

 occurrences attested by evidence which the scientifically-trained 

 mind could possibly accept as really authentic. But that there 

 are still educated people who can believe in such things is of 

 course another evidence of that utter and crass ignorance of 



