THE 



PHILOSOPHICAL MAGAZINE, 



APRIL 1799 = 



I. Obfcr-vations on Living Animals fotlnd inclofed in Stonet 

 and other J olid Sub/lances, By F. W. A. MuRHARD. 

 From Magazin fur das neuefte aus der Phyfik. Vol. XI. 



V^/F living animals being found inclofed in folid manes, I 

 have met with no mention in the works of the ancients. 

 Martial, indeed, in one of his epigrams, fpeaks of infecls" 

 inclofcd in amber 5 but tbefe animals were dead, and there- 

 fore do not belong to this fubjeft. As far as I know, Ful- 

 gos * is the firft author who makes mention of a living toad 

 being found inclofed in a ftonc. He wrote about the be- 

 ginning of the fixteenth century; and the circumftance took 

 place in the village of Mcudon in Italy, in the time of PopG 

 Martin V. lie was informed by a ftone-cutter that there 

 was nothing fiirprifing in it, as fuch phenomena had often 

 occurred to himfelf. Agricola, who lived afterwards, fpeaka 

 of poifonous frogs being found in ftones, but which foon 

 died when expofed for a fhort while to the air. Aldrovandi f 

 alfo fpeaka of marble in which thefe animals were found 



r See his work De MirahUibuu Medjol. 1 500, fol. and Antverp. 1565.S, 

 in tlic chapter De anjibvi animalibufque a/iis admirandit. 

 t Aldrovandi De Teftacois, p. 81. 

 Vol. III. a alive, 



