400 



being perforated in the thicker part. He particularly mentions 

 one, which, he says, had been driven, by the force of the thunder, 

 twelve ells deep in the ground, in a wine-cellar ; another, which 

 had split a large oak, near lleburg ; and another, which had been 

 struck into a tree, by the power of the thunder, in a field near 

 Torga*. Thus also Wagner and Langj place the stony dice, 

 TESSERA LVSORIM FOSSILES LAPIDEM, among the petrified figured stones 

 assuming a regular form. These little white cubic, and exactly 

 marked stones, they describe as being found in the neighbourhood 

 of the city of Baden, being frequently turned up by the moles. 

 The considerable numbers which have been found encourage, they 

 think, the opinion of their having been the work of nature; but 

 finding it difficult to ascertain, whether they have really been pro- 

 duced by the labour of man, and strewed about this spot;. or whether 

 nature, eager to imitate the works of art, has formed them in her 

 sportive moments ; they satisfy themselves with exclaiming, 



Natura certe 



Multa tegit sacra involucra, nee ullis 

 Fas est scire quidem mortalibus omnia! 



acknowledging that even the medicinal use of these fossil dice is 

 hitherto unknown ; but asserting that they were equally fit for play 

 with those which had been made by artj. 



Yours, &c. 



* Oryctographia Hildesheimensis, a D. Friderico Lachmund. 1659. 



f Historia Natural. Helvet. fol. 329. Historia Lapidum Figuratorum Helvetia Ca- 

 roli Nicolai Langii, p. 68. 



$ Tesserarum fossilium usus medicus hucusque incognitus est, praeterquam quod ad 

 Uisum non minims ac arte factae quadrant. Hist. Lap. Fig. p. 69. 



