l\ % "Living Animah inclofed in Stones, &c. 



I mutt obferve alfo, that mod of the animals found in this 

 manner were of the amphibious kind, and requeft the reader 

 to reflect on the habits, nature and mode of living peculiar 

 to that clafs. Caldefi relates, that tortoifes can endure hun- 

 ger for half a year; and numberlefs inflances might be pror 

 duced of their llrong and tough nature. 



I (hall not enlarge farther on this fubject at prefent, as I 

 mean at fome future period to communicate my ideas to the 

 public in a more connected manner, and to give as complete 

 a theory on it as pofiible. 1 flatter myfelf that I am the 

 more qualified for this tafk, as many have written on thefe 

 phenomena and formed conjectures without having ever 

 feen one inllance, while I have been an eye witnefs of fome 

 of the latcft. In a quarry not far from Caffel, between that 

 city and the palace of Freyenhagen, I found three toads 

 together in a pretty large block of free-none *. I remember, 

 alfo, that, when a boy, our houfe at Caffel being under repair,. 

 and the old plafter pulled down, feveral toads were found 

 between it and the (tone wall f. 



At a period like the prefent, when fo many things are 

 made the fubject of experiment, when every one endeavours 

 to tread in the footfteps of a Bacon and a Newton, and, in- 

 ftead of being contented with furveying Nature in her pri- 

 vate receffes and carefully watching her progrefs, compels 

 her as it were to labour and make known her fecrets, I am 

 much aftonifhed that (he has not been put to the proof in 

 this refpect long ago. Such experiments, without which 

 all theory muft ever remain mere hypothefes, and can never 

 amount to demonstration, would require little or no expence. 

 Nothing would be neceflary but to make a deep hole in a 

 ftone j to inclofe fome animal in it, fuch for example as a 



* See Dill. Acr usmicor. Inftitut. Bonon. (interp. Beccario) op. B.ene- 

 jiift. XIV. P. M. de bevor. Dei beatificat. 1. iv. p. i. p. 3»8; and Becca- 

 jtus in Comment -r. Inftir. Bonon. torn. ii. p. i. p. 323. 



\ A full accuunt of this circumftance, which I tranfmitted tp M. Kaft- 

 jaer, may be found in the Gotlhtgifcb. Anzeig. for 1 796. 



9 toad, 



