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ball of clay nearly an inch thick. Now this material 

 could not permit the functions of respiration to go on : 

 though a loose and spongy texture, as of a sandy soil, 

 might be supposed to minister, though slowly, to this 

 process. When Mr. Neill's siren lacertina was pre- 

 sented to him by Dr. Munro, in 1825, it was enveloped 

 in a ball of mud or clay, and received from the marshes 

 of South Carolina. It was transferred from the 

 greenhouse in April, 1827, to the stove, where it lives 

 in a box of water, containing also moss. Here we 

 have frequently seen this curious, animal, which is 

 capable of breathing at pleasure, either by internal 

 lungs, or external branchiae (gills) : it will live seve- 

 ral hours, either in or out of the water, and is 

 therefore truly amphibious. It croaks like a frog, and 

 is fed on worms ; but seems desirous of concealment, 

 and we have always had to remove the moss to dis- 

 cover it : it is capable of enduring a long abstinence ; 

 when we last saw it, it seemed very lively Of the 

 same description precisely is the repose of the toad 

 and lizard, in the solid rock, several hundred feet 

 below the surface of the ground. In such cases, it 

 seems clear, respiration must have long ceased : for no 

 sooner is their prison-house unsealed, than that which 

 was first discovered an apparently lifeless and motion- 

 less form, begins to move, and at length exerts its 

 functions, which seemed as hermetically sealed as its 

 lapideous dwelling-place. It is quite clear, also, that 

 torpidity is preserved inviolate in this enclosure, by 

 the uniformity of the temperature in which it is 

 found from a two -fold cause, the nature of the 

 lapideous mass, and the depth below the surface 

 where it reposes. Increase of temperature, and con- 

 tact with an atmosphere acting with all its elec- 

 tric, hygrometric, and barometric vicissitudes, seem 



