Vitality of Toads, S^-c. 46 



to believe,* when we consider their diminutive size, and that they 

 attain maturity in two or three years ; whereas, if we look at man — 

 the number of years before he arrives at maturity— the long con- 

 tinued labor he is capable of sustaining, and the great effect which 

 the mind has upon the body, so that, whether from physical or men- 

 tal causes, his life is occasionally protracted to one hundred years 

 or more; and if we contemplate particularly the large size of the 

 elephant, the great number of years requisite to enable him to ac- 

 quire his full growth, and finally his maturity of two hundred years 

 or more, — from all these circumstances we must be led to suppose, 

 that the reptiles that have been found immured in sandstone and mar- 

 ble must have remained in that situation longer than we can reasona- 

 bly attribute to the life of reptiles of any kind, and that the concre- 

 tions (as some have supposed) that have assisted to enclose them, 

 would be longer in forming than can be allowed for the usual 

 term of their natural lives. Professor Buckland concludes, from his 

 experiments, that when the natural organs of the animal are in con- 

 tinual action, the vitality of the toad has no extraordinary continu- 

 ance, and that therefore hfe most terminate in a short time ; but we 

 are, on the contrary, led to believe that the vitality of the toad may 

 be continued to an interminable length of time, provided the animal 

 has become torpid by cold, so as to stop respiration and the circula- 

 lation of the blood, and provided he remain at a low temperature, 

 and without a free circulation of air, adapted to produce revivescence. 



We may presume that the internal parts of the rock strata from 

 which cold springs issue, are of about the same temperature as the 

 water that issues from them ; it may therefore be admitted as proba- 

 ble, that the toad, if enclosed in a rock, would not become quickened 

 until after that rock has become warmer than the water that issues 

 from it in summer; and that, under ordinary circumstances, the toad 

 does not issue from his torpid state in the spring, until after the air 

 becomes warmer than the spring water that issues from the rocks in 

 summer. 



That in every instance where toads are found immured in stone, 



there should be a crevice or aperture in the rock, to admit air and 



I insects for food to the tenants, and that it has escaped the notice and 



* See Bakewell's Geology, page 21, note, first American edition, for a fact which 

 gives a term of at least twenty five years to a toad imprisoned under the hollow of 

 the bottom of a wine bottle, where he was annually inspected, and then was, 

 through carelessness, permitted to make his escape . — Ed. 



