318 Rev. Dr. Buckland on the Vitality of 
in a chalk pit and brought alive to the late Dr. Clarke. In the case also 
of wells and coal pits, a reptile that had fallen down the well or shaft and 
survived its fall would seek its natural retreat in the first hole or crevice 
it could find, and the miner dislodging it from this cavity to which his 
previous attention had not been called, might in ignorance conclude that 
the animal was coeval with the stone from which he had extracted it. 
It remains only to consider the case, (of which I know not any 
authenticated example,) of Toads that have been said to be found in cavities 
within blocks of limestone to which on careful examination, no access 
whatever could be discovered, and where the animal was absolutely and 
entirely closed up withstone. Should any such case ever have existed, it 
is probable that the communication between this cavity and the external 
surface had been closed up by stalactitic incrustation after the animal had 
become too large to make its escape. A similar explanation may be 
offered of the much more probable case of a live Toad being entirely 
surrounded with solid wood. In each case the animal would have con- 
tinued to increase in bulk so long as the smallest aperture remained by 
which air and insects could find admission; it wou!d probably become torpid 
as soon as this aperture was entirely closed by the accumulation of stalactite 
or the growth of wood; but it still remains to be ascertained how long 
this state of torpor may continue under total exclusion from food, and 
from external air: and although the experiments above recorded shew 
that life did not extend two years in the case of any one of the individuals 
which formed the subjects of them, yet, for reasons which have been 
specified, they are not decisive to shew that a state of torpor, or suspended 
animation, may not be endured for a much longer time by Toads that are 
healthy and well fed up to the noment when they are finally cut off from 
food, and from all direct access of atmosperic air. 
The common experiment of burying a Toad in a flower-pot covered 
with a tile, is of no value unless the cover be carefully luted to the pot, 
and the hole at the bottom of the pot also closed, so as to exclude all 
possible access of air, earthworms and insects. I have heard of two or 
three experiments of this kind, in which these precautions have not been 
taken, and in which at the end of a year the Toads have been found alive 
and well. 
Besides the Toads enclosed in stone and wood, four others were placed 
