1872-82 FROGS IN STONES 225 



old Lord Russell. He sat down to dinner in a 

 comfortable cloak and black cap, like a lively,, 

 keen-eyed mummy : as full of bright mind and 

 anecdote and fun as ever.' 



Owen had not yet heard the last of ' frogs in 

 stones ' and other wonders. In November he 

 writes to a lady, who affirms that she saw ' with 

 the utmost surprise,' a frog come out of a bit of 

 rock which was taken out of a pit, and asks how 

 long it had been there. ' My dear madam,' the 

 Professor replies, ' the time during which the 

 frog was in the pit will depend a good deal upon 

 whether it came out of a cleft in the stone, into 

 which it could have crept before being disturbed 

 by the men, or whether it had been imbedded in 

 the substance of that stone. If the latter, it must 

 have got in before the stone was stone — when, e.g., 

 it was sand. 



1 The living state of the frog tells against that 

 hypothesis. The astonishment and " utmost sur- 

 prise " of the spectators are unfavourable states 

 of mind to clear insight and cool consideration of 

 the circumstances of the case. . . . No coal or 

 stone exists in any museum bearing the impress 

 of a toad or frog therein embedded. Verb. sap. ! 

 Madam, yours faithfully and obliged, 



' Richard Owen.' 



In 1873 Owen described in the Journal of the 

 Geological Society the skull of a toothed bird 



VOL. II. Q 



