n, who are
the only people whose operations on stone and wood disclose cavities in
the interior of such substances.

"In the case of Toads, Snakes, and Lizards, that occasionally issue from
stones that are broken in a quarry, or in sinking wells, and sometimes
even from strata of coal at the bottom of a coal-mine, the evidence is
never perfect to shew that the reptiles were entirely inclosed in solid
rock. No examination is ever made until the reptile is first discovered
by the breaking of the mass in which it was contained, and then it is
too late to ascertain, without carefully replacing every fragment, (and
in no case that I have seen reported has this ever been done,) whether
or not there was any hole or crevice by which the animal may have
entered the cavity from which it was extracted. Without previous
examination it is almost impossible to prove that there was no such
communication. In the case of rocks near the surface of the earth, and
in stone quarries, reptiles find ready admission to holes and fissures.
We have a notorious example of this kind in the Lizard found in a
chalk-pit, and brought alive to the late Dr Clark. 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
conclude 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 continued 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