136 THE PrflLOSOPHY 



breathing, till the heat of the fpring reflores their wonted 

 powers of life, when the refpiration of air becomes again 

 equally neceffary as before their torpor commenced. The 

 toad, like all the frog-kind, is torpid in winter. At the ap- 

 proach of winter, the toad retires to the hollow root of a tree, 

 to the cleft of a rock, and fometimes to the bottom of a ditch 

 or pond, where it remains for months in a ftate of feeming in- 

 feniibility. In this laft fituation, it can have very little com- 

 munication with the air. But ftill the principle of life, is 

 continued, and the animal revives in the fpring. What is 

 more wonderful, toads have been founds in a hundred place? 

 of the globe, inclofed in the heart of folid rocks, and in the 

 bodies of trees, where they have been fuppofed to exiil: for 

 centuries, without any apparent accefs either to nourlflnnent 

 or to air ; and yet they were alive and vigorous. In the 

 Memoirs of the Academy of Sciences for the year 1719, we 

 have an account of a toad found alive, and healthy, in the 

 heart of an old elm. Another, in the year 1731, was dif- 

 covered, near Nantz, in the heart of an old oak, without any 

 vifible entrance to its habitation. From the fize of the tree, 

 it was concluded, that the animal muft have been confined in 

 that fituation at leaft eighty or a hundred years. In the 

 many examples of toads found in folid rocks, exact impref- 

 fions of the animals bodies, correfponding to their refpe£live 

 fizes were uniformly left in the {lones or trees from which 

 they were diflodged ; and, to this day, it is faid, that there is a 

 marble chimney-piece at Chatfworth with a print of a toad 

 in it ; and a traditionary account of the place and manner in 

 which it was difcovered. 



Thefe, and fimilar fa61s, are fupported by authorities fo 

 numerous and fo refpecStable, that it is unneceiTary to quote 

 them. Many abortive attempts have been made to account 

 for an animal's growing and living very long in the fituationg 

 above defcyibed, without the poffibility of receiving notiriQi-. 



