Crawfish.—Misson, in his Travels through Italy, mentions a crawfish that was found alive in the middle of a marble in the environs of Tivoli.
Frogs.—M. Peyssonel, king's physician at Guadaloupe, having ordered a pit to be dug in the back part of his house, live frogs were found by the workmen in beds of petrifaction. M. P., suspecting some deceit, descended into the pit, dug the bed of the rock and petrifactions, and drew out himself green frogs, which were alive, and perfectly similar to what we see every day.
We are informed by the European Magazine, February 21, 1771, that M. Herissan inclosed three live toads in so many cases of plaster, and shut them up in a deal box, which he also covered with thick plaster. On the 6th of April, 1774, having taken away the plaster, he opened the box, and found the cases whole and two of the toads alive. The one that died was larger than the others, and had been more compressed in its case. A careful examination of this experiment convinced those who had witnessed it, that the animals were so inclosed that they could have no possible communication with the external air, and that they must have existed during this lapse of time without the smallest nourishment.
The Academy prevailed upon M. Herissan to repeat the experiment. He inclosed again the two surviving toads, and placed the box in the hands of the Secretary, that the Society might open it whenever they should think proper. But this celebrated naturalist was too strongly interested in the subject to rest satisfied with a single experiment; he made, therefore, the two following:—
1. He placed, 15 April, 1771, two live toads in a basin of plaster, which he covered with a glass case that he might observe them frequently. On the 9th of the following month, he presented the apparatus to the Academy. One of the toads was still living; the other had died the preceding night.
2. The same day, April 15, he inclosed another toad in a glass bottle, which he buried in sand, that it might have no communication with the external air. This animal, which he presented to the Academy at the same time, was perfectly well, and even croaked whenever the bottle was shook in which he was confined. It is to be lamented that the death of M. Herissan put a stop to these experiments.
We beg leave to observe upon this subject, that the power which these animals appear to possess of supporting abstinence for so long a time, may depend upon a very slow digestion, and, perhaps, from the singular nourishment which they derive from themselves. M. Grignon observes that this animal sheds its skin several times in the course of a year, and that it always swallows it. He has known, he says, a large toad shed its skin six times in one winter. In short, those which, from the facts we have related, may be supposed to have existed many centuries without nourishment, have been in a total inaction, in a suspension of life, or a temperature that has admitted of no dissolution; so that it was not necessary to repair any loss, the humidity of the surrounding matter preserving that of the animal, who wanted only the component parts not to be dried up, to preserve it from destruction.
The results of modern chemistry and philosophy have proved the number of elementary substances to be far greater than was admitted in the preceding century. And this discovery is progressive, and will probably go on a long time; after which, it is not improbable a new race of chemical and philosophical observers will spring up, who will be able to decompose many substances we now consider elementary, and thus again reduce the number of elements of which all external matter is composed. It would not be wonderful if posterity should reduce the number of elements even as low as the ancients had them. Such a result would throw new light on the mysterious and intricate connection which seems to exist between animal, vegetable, and mineral matter. We should then, perhaps, have less cause to wonder that toads, &c., are capable of supporting life in stone, that birds should exist in solid blocks of wood, &c.
But toads are not the only animals which are capable of living for a considerable length of time without nourishment and communication with the external air. The instances of the oysters and dactyles, mentioned at the beginning of this article, may be advanced as a proof of it. But there are other examples.—European Magazine, March, 1791.
A beetle, of the species called capricorn, was found in a piece of wood in the hold of a ship at Plymouth. The wood had no external mark of any aperture.—European Magazine.