96 APPENDIX: NO. LX. 
There can be no doubt he was right in believing that Dr. Stark was 
in error in exhibiting at the Zoological Society, in 1833, a skeleton 
of a Frog caught near Edinburgh, as the Edible, or indeed, as 
Mr. Bell (vide Brit. Rep., 2nd ed.) afterwards said, as any other 
species than the Common Frog. 
But I must repeat that, with all respect for the opinion of 
Mr. Bell, I can hardly bring myself to believe that we have at 
present “irrefragable testimony”’ of the Edible or Esculent Frog 
being indigenous to Great Britain. 
Iam afraid we must wait for the discovery of old Fen bones, 
undoubted allusions in old books, or some such testimony, to 
strengthen what Mr. Bell has hitherto advanced; for at most he 
has proved or rendered highly probable nothing more than the 
existence, a hundred years ago, at one spot in the island, of 
the Edible Frog, apparently abundant,—the same spot where it 
was found, apparently indigenous, or at least naturalized, now 
nearly sixteen years ago, 
The numerous naturalists who are familiar with the Eastern 
Counties’ fens in their less-drained condition, and who, as far as I 
know, never observed in them anything like what the “ Whaddon 
Organs” are believed to have always been, afford in the question 
negative evidence not without some little weight ; at least, it makes 
one believe that the Edible Frog was long nearly, if not quite, 
confined to Foulmire. Still we must not forget Shaw and Pennant. 
But it scarcely seems past all doubt whether or not the term 
“Whaddon Organs” referred to a peculiar species of Frog ; for the 
fen Foulmire is out of the general Fen District, and the village 
Whaddon being close to it, might get credit for its numerous Frogs 
aud Toads, which I believe to have been beyond the experience of 
the rest of that immediate part of the country. 
Still, every respect is of course due to the opinion of Mr. Bell, 
senior, as recorded by his son. But supposing there were any 
mistake, it appears there was time, after Mr. Berney’s introduction 
of his first Edible Frogs, for a good many of them to have moved 
themselves, or to have been moved, to Foulmire, and to have 
increased there in the course of the six years that intervened before 
Mr. Thurnall discovered them. But whether there be any mistake 
or not, Mr. Berney’s idea may have struck some one else many years 
sooner than it did Mr. Berney, or than Mr. Bell lived within reach 
of Foulmire. 
Beeston, 
June 18, 1859. 
PRINTED BY TAYLOR AND FRANCIS, RED LION COURT, FLEET SLREET. 
