Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 17.djvu/119

 of which was dead, numerous insects were found. No. 9, weighing originally 988 grains, had increased during its incarceration to 1,116 grains; but No. 1, which in the year 1825 had weighed 924 grains, was found in December, 1826, to have decreased to 698 grains; and No. 11, originally weighing 836 grains, had likewise disagreed with the imprisonment, weighing only 652 grains when examined in 1826.

At the period when the blocks of stone were thus prepared, four toads were pinned up in holes five inches deep and three inches in diameter, cut in the stem of an apple-tree; the holes being firmly plugged with tightly fitting wooden plugs. These four toads were found to be dead when examined along with the others in 1826; and of four others inclosed in basins made of plaster-of-Paris, and which were also buried in Dr. Buckland's garden, two were found to be dead at the end of the year, their comrades being alive, but looking starved and meager. The toads which were found alive in the limestone block in December, 1826, were again immured and buried, but were found to be dead, without leaving a single survivor, at the end of the second year of their imprisonment.

These experiments may fairly be said to prove two points. They firstly show that even under circumstances of a favorable kind when compared with the condition popularly believed in—namely, that of being inclosed in a solid rock—the limit of the toad's life may be assumed to be within two years; this period being no doubt capable of being extended when the animal possesses a slight advantage, exemplified by the admission of air and insect-food. And, secondly, we may argue that these experiments show that toads when rigorously treated, like other animals, become starved and meager, and by no means resemble the lively, well-fed animals reported as having emerged from an imprisonment extending, in popular estimation, through periods of inconceivable duration. These tales are, in short, as devoid of actual foundation as are the modern beliefs in the venomous properties of the toad, or the ancient beliefs in the occult and mystic powers of various parts of its frame when used in incantations. Shakespeare, while attributing to the toad venomous qualities, has yet immortalized it in his famous simile, by crediting it with the possession of a "precious jewel." But even in the latter case the animal gets but scant justice; for science strips it of its poetical reputation, and in this, as in other respects, shows it, despite fable and myth, to be an interesting but commonplace member of the animal series.—Gentleman's Magazine.