31S Rev. Dr Buckland 07i the Vitality of 



in a chalk pit and brought aHve to the late Dr. Clarke. In the case also 

 of wells and coal pits, a reptile that had fallen down the well or shaft and 

 survived its fall would seek its natural retreat in the first hole or crevice 

 it could find, and the miner dislodging it from this cavity to which his 

 previous attention had not been called, might in ignorance conckvie that 

 the animal was coeval with the stone from which he had extracted it. 



It remains only to consider the case, (of which I know not any 

 authenticated example,) of Toads that have been said to be found in cavities 

 within blocks of limestone to which on careful examination, no access 

 whatever could be discovered, and where the animal was absolutely and 

 entirely closed up with stone. Should any such case ever have existed, it 

 is probable that the communication between this cavity and the external 

 surface had been closed up by stalactitic incrustation after the animal had 

 become too large to make its escape. A similar explanation may be 

 offered of the much more probable case of a live Toad being entirely 

 surrounded with solid wood. In each case the animal would have con- 

 tinued to increase in bulk so long as the smallest aperture remained by 

 which air and insects could find admission; it would probably become torpid 

 as soon as this aperture was entirely closed by the accumulation of stalactite 

 or the growth of wood; but it still remains to be ascertained how long 

 this state of torpor may continue under total exclusion from food, and 

 from external air : and although the experiments above recorded shew 

 that life did not extend two years in the case of any one of the individuals 

 which formed the subjects of them, yet, for reasons which have been 

 specified, they are not decisive to shew that a state of torpor, or suspended 

 animation, may not be endured for a much longer time by Toads that are 

 healthy and well fed up to the ?noment when they are finally cut off from 

 food, and from all diiect access of atmosperic air. 



The common experiment of burying a Toad in a flower-pot covered 

 with a tile, is of no value unless the cover be carefully luted to the pot, 

 and the hole at the bottom of the pot also closed, so as to exclude all 

 possible access of air, earthworms and insects. I have heard of two or 

 three experiments of this kind, in which these precautions have not been 

 taken, and in which at the end of a year the Toads have been found alive 

 and well. 



Besides the Toads enclosed in stone and wood, four others were placed 



