184 GREAT TOAD-IN-HOLE QUESTION. 



in which these animals have been discovered in situations whera 

 they have been in great part enclosed in solid substances, and 

 more or less deprived of food and air for cor. -iderable periods ; 

 but that any animal can live for a lengthened time wholly and 

 entirely deprived of food and air, is so diametrically opposed to 

 all that we certainly know on the subject, that the supposition is 

 too extravagant to be entertained for a moment. The truth is, 

 the discoveries, curious and remarkable enough, no doubt, on 

 which the popular belief on this subject is founded, have gene- 

 rally been made by persons quite incompetent to decide on a 

 matter requiring such careful and accurate observation. 



Mr. Jesse, in his " Gleanings in Xatural History," argues 

 strongly in favour of the popular notion, and mentions several 

 instances in which not only Frogs and Toads, but Snakes and 

 Eels are said to have been discovered alive enclosed in solid blocks 

 of stone. But, as is almost invariably the case, nothing but 

 " hearsay " evidence is given, and that, too, of the loosest and 

 most unreliable character. In so far as actual experiments have 

 thrown any light upon the subject, those instituted by Dr. 

 Buckland establish conclusively that the Toad, when deprived of 

 food and of all access to the external air, is incapable of subsist- 

 ing, at the longest, for more than about twelve months. What 

 seems thus to be proved with respect to the Toad is no doubt 

 equally true of the Frog ; and we may rest assured all supposed 

 discoveries to the contrary, notwithstanding that no ante-dilu- 

 vian Frog or Toad has ever yet been seen, in our day, alive. 

 There are real wonders enough in nature without our making 

 fictitious ones of our own, and with this latter class must cer- 

 tainly be ranked the popular notion on this subject. 



It has already been hinted, that, as the ancients regarded some 

 of the Batrachia as highly venomous, so also they found amongst 

 them some whose curative powers were no less remarkable. It 

 was to the various kinds of Frogs especially that these extraordi- 

 nary curative powers belonged ; and if we may take the statements 

 of Pliny as our guide, it would appear that these animals were 

 able, in one form or another, like some of our modern panaceas, to 

 remove nearly " all the ills that flesh is heir to." We cannot, of 

 course, go into this matter at any length, and shall, therefore, 

 notice only some of the more curious forms in which the Frog 

 remedy was administered. 



