S4 



FRIDAY, APRIL 26th, 1901. 

 DISCOVERY OF A 



JHummi^tr ®0a5 in a JFIint Jiniuk, 



FOUND AT LEWES, SUSSEX. 



(Now in Mr. Henry WilleWs Collection, Brighton Museum.) 



BY 



CHARLES DAWSON, Esq., 



F.G.S., F.S.A., Etc., 



Honorary Meniber of the BrigMon and Hove Natural History and 

 Philosophical Society. 



R. DAWSON opened his subject by referring to the early 

 mention, by Lord Bacon and Dr. Plot, of entombed toads. 

 He also remarked that abundance of notices had appeared in 

 The Zoologist. The best series of instances had been collected 

 by Mr. P. H. Gosse, F.R.S., in his Romance of Natural History 

 (second series). 



Referring to the recent discovery of a specimen in Sussex, 

 and then exhibited to this Society, Mr. Dawson said :— A 

 mummied toad in the hollow flint nodule was discovered at 

 Lewes by two workmen named Mr. Thomas Nye and Mr. Joseph 

 Isted, about two summers ago. 



The nodule was lying with others on the side of the road, 

 to be used as road metal, and the flints had been obtained 

 from a neighbouring quarry at the base of the Downs, to the 

 North-East of Lewes. It was thickly covered with a crust of 

 chalk, and attracted the attention of the men by its peculiar 

 shape, being in form like a large citron (present size — length, 

 5|- inches; circumference, 12 inches; diameter, 4 i-8th inches). 



The comparative lightness of the stone induced Mr. Nye 

 to break it open, when, in a hollow in the centre, was discovered 

 the mummied toad, encrusted with chalky matter, together with 

 a loose mass of fine white chalk (with sponge-spicules), and 

 " pith " (presumably portions of a fossil sponge). 



The hole communicating with the cavity to be seen at the 

 narrow or pointed end of the stone was not then opened, but was 

 filled with silted chalk, which rendered it almost invisible, as will 



