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 Ileburg ; and another, which had been 
struck into a tree, by the power of the thunder, in a field near 
Torga*. Thus also Wagner and Langf place the stony dice, 
TEssERM LusoRiM FossiLEs LAP IDEM, 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 
Malta tegit sacra involucra, nec 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 
vrith those which had been made by artj. 
Yours, &c. 
* Oryctographia Hildesheiraensis, a D. Friderico Lachmund. 1659. 
f Historia Natural. Helvet. fol. 329. Historia Lapidum Figuratorum Helvetia Carol! 
Nicolai Langii, p. 68. 
J Tesserarum fossilium usus medicus hucusque incognitus est, praeterquam quod ad 
lusum non minus ac arte factae quadrent. — Hist. Lap. Fig. p. 69. 
