ced in each of the twenty-four cells.
The largest specimen weighed 1185 grains, and the smallest 115 grains.
The stones and the immured toads were buried on the day mentioned,
three feet deep, in Dr. Buckland's garden. There they lay until
December 10th, 1826, when they were disinterred and their tenants
examined. All the toads in the smaller cells of the sandstone block
were dead, and from the progress of decomposition it was inferred that
they had succumbed long before the date of disinterment. The majority
of the toads in the limestone block were alive, and, curiously enough,
one or two had actually increased in weight. Thus, No. 5, which at the
commencement of its captivity had weighed 1185 grains, had increased
to 1265 grains; but the glass cover of No. 5's cell was found to be
cracked. Insects and air must therefore have obtained admittance and
have afforded nourishment to the imprisoned toad; this supposition
being rendered the more likely by the discovery that in one of the
cells, the covers of which were also cracked and the tenant of which
was dead, numerous insects were found. No. 9, weighing originally 988
grains, had increased during its incarceration to 1116 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 936 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
enclosed 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 a year, their comrades being alive, but looking starved and meagre.
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 under circumstances even of a favorable kind when compared
with the condition popularly believed in--namely, that of being
enclosed in a _solid_ rock