FISHES. 495 



tened form, named glossopetrce, are the teeth of a species ofSqua- 

 lus ; and those more or less rounded, which have been termed 

 bufonites, batrachites, &c. are, according to Blainville, to be con- 

 sidered as having belonged to the Spari or some congenerous fa- 

 mily. The glossopetrce, or petrified tongues, as they have been 

 termed, found in quantities at Malta, were supposed by the igno- 

 rant to be the tongues of the serpents which St Paul was said 

 to have destroyed when in that island. These are teeth of 

 Squall, and often occur so large, (four inches in height and 

 five on the sides) 'that M. Lacepede conjectures the individuals 

 to which they belonged must have been at least seventy-one feet 

 long. The teeth and spines of rays are also frequently met 

 with in a fossil state. 



JSufoniteSy batrachites, or toad-stones, so named, because it 

 was formerly believed they were engendered in the head of the 

 toad, are found in numbers in various places, on the continent, 

 and in England. Though generally confounded under the same 

 name, there are evidently many different species. Lluid divides 

 them after their forms, as orbicular, flattened, or hemispherical ; 

 and figures of many are given in his work entitled Lithophylacii 

 Britannici Ichnographia, and in the second volume of Knorr's 

 large work on petrifactions. 



