122 BUFONID^E. 



been made in order to try whether the Toads would die 

 on being artificially embedded in masses of clay, of plaster 

 of Paris, in wooden boxes surrounded by plaster, and in 

 other similar circumstances; but hitherto all have failed, 

 although in some of them the animals have certainly lived 

 for a much longer period than could have been expected, 

 prolonged sometimes to many months, or even to between 

 one and two years. Upon the whole, it appears to me 

 that whilst the many concurrent assertions of credible per- 

 sons, who declare themselves to have been witnesses of the 

 emancipation of imprisoned Toads, forbids us hastily to 

 refuse our assent, or at least to deny the possibility of such 

 a circumstance, it must be confessed that we still want 

 better and more cautious evidence, to authorize our im- 

 plicit belief in these asserted facts. The truth probably is, 

 that a Toad may have lain hid in the hollow of a tree, 

 during perhaps a whole autumn and winter, and found 

 itself on the return of spring so far enclosed within its 

 hiding place as to be unable to escape. As this animal 

 requires but little respiration, and consequently but little 

 food to support life, especially when in a state of entire 

 inactivity, the smallest opening would be sufficient to ad- 

 mit the requisite passage of air, and even the occasional 

 ingress of a small insect ; and afterwards, when the tree 

 was cut up, the Toad may have been found enclosed, and 

 the opening may have escaped detection. To believe that 

 a Toad enclosed within a mass of clay, or other similar 

 substance, shall exist wholly without air or food, for hun- 

 dreds of years, and at length be liberated alive, and capable 

 of crawling, on the breaking up of the matrix, now become 

 a solid rock, is certainly a demand upon our credulity 

 which few would be ready to answer. 



That Toads may be rendered very tame, and be made to 



