228 TOADS 



Its origin is not difficult to discern. Toads hibernate 

 regularly ; at the first hint of autumn frost they creep 

 into convenient holes and crannies, and doze away the 

 months till daffodils begin to peer, wasting little tissue 

 because they take no exercise, don't worry their brains 

 with perplexing problems, and have no cause for appre- 

 hension from the Chancellor of the Exchequer's next 

 budget. Sometimes they fall down coal mines, and 

 survive the shock. Finding subsistence there precarious, 

 consisting of such insects that may have been similarly 

 entrapped, they may economise tissue by premature 

 hibernation, and when one is discovered ensconced in a 

 block of coal, the old story is revived the reptile is 

 hailed in newspaper paragraphs as a survival from the 

 age of the coal measures. 



Frank Buckland honoured the myth by putting it 

 to practical, if somewhat heartless, test. Taking two 

 large blocks of stone, one of porous limestone, the 

 other of impervious sandstone, he caused twelve deep 

 holes to be bored in each, and in every hole he placed 

 a healthy toad, closing the holes hermetically with 

 glass, and then burying the blocks deep in the earth. 

 After the lapse of a year and two weeks the blocks 

 were exhumed. The toads in the air-proof sandstone 

 were all dead and decayed; so were two or three of 

 those in the porous limestone; but the majority of 

 these last were alive, with their eyes open. Strong 

 must have been the temptation to release them and 

 give them a restorative breakfast of creeping things ; 

 but science is very remorseless when in quest of 

 truth. Buckland buried them again. At the end of 



