Snake found in a Block of Coal. 227 



SCIENTIFIC ESTABLISHMENT, WURTEMBITRG. 



VV'iiitonihursr, Feb. 20. 

 His majesty the King, convinced of the advantage vvliich a 

 iinion of respectable men of letters affords the state, has resolved, 

 by a rescript of February 17, to give to the scientific erstablish- 

 ment in the capital such a forra as may make it possible for such 

 men to apply v.ith success to the varions objects of their re^ 

 searches; and has ordered the union of The cabinet of medals, 

 coins, works of art, minerals, and natural history, with The roval 

 public library, reserving the rigiits of the roval house to these col- 

 lections. The King has appointed Dr. Iviehnaver, hitherto pro- 

 fessor of medicine at Tubingen, to be director, and at the same 

 time made him counsellor of state. 



LXI. Intflligence and Miicelluneotts Articles. 



SNAKE OR ADDER FOUND Mi A RLOCK OF COAL. 



J^N a recent number of the Philosophical Magazine we gave a 

 communication on the singular circumstance of two lizards hav- 

 ing been discovered in a chalk-bed in Suffolk, sixty feet below 

 the surface. The publication of this fact has given rise to the 

 following alfidavit of a similar discovery by two pitmen in the 

 cpunty of Stafford. " We, VViiliam Mills and John Fisher, both 

 of the parish of Tipton in the county of Stafford, do hereby cer- 

 tify and declare, that a few years ago in working in a certain 

 coalpit belonging to the Right Hnnourable Viscoun.t Dudley and 

 Ward, at what is called the Pieces in the parish of Tipton afore- 

 said, and on cleaving or breaking the stratum of coal called the 

 stone coal, which is about f;)ur feet thick, and in that situation 

 lies about fifty yards from the earth's surface — we discovered ally- 

 ing reptile of the snake or adder kind, lying coiled up, imbedded 

 in a small hollow cell v.-ithin the said solid coal, which might be 

 about 20 tons in weight. The rcj)tlle when discovered visibly 

 moved, and soon afterwards crept out of the hole; but did not 

 live longer than ten minutes on l)eing exposed to the aii", when 

 it naturally died, not having been at ail hurt by the cleaving of 

 the coal, whose thickness and solidity nnist have kept it before 

 frpm all air. The hollow in which it lay was split or cloven in 

 two by means of an iron wedge ; and was rather moist at the 

 bottom, but had no visil>le water. It was nearly the si/e of a com- 

 mon tea-saucer; and the reptile was about nine inches long, of 

 a darkish ashy colour, and a little speckled. After it was dead 

 ft was thrown aside ; and the large coal in which it lay, being 



P 2 broken 



