The Works of Benjamin Franklin, Volume 10. Бенджамин Франклин

      CORRESPONDENCE AND MISCELLANEOUS WRITINGS

       1782 - 1784

      MCXV: AN ACCOUNT OF TOADS FOUND ENCLOSED IN SOLID STONE

      At Passy, near Paris, April 6, 1782, being with M. de Chaumont, viewing his quarry, he mentioned to me that the workmen had found a living toad shut up in the stone. On questioning one of them, he told us they had found four in different cells which had no communication; that there was in each cell some loose, soft, yellowish earth, which appeared to be very moist. We asked if he could show us the parts of the stone that formed the cells. He said, No; for they were thrown among the rest of what was dug out, and he knew not where to find them. We asked if there appeared any opening by which the animal could enter. He said, No. We asked if, in the course of his business as a laborer in quarries, he had often met with the like. He said, Never before. We asked if he could show us the toads. He said, he had thrown two of them up on a higher part of the quarry, but knew not what became of the others.

      He then came up to the place where he had thrown the two, and, finding them, he took them by the foot and threw them up to us, upon the ground where we stood. One of them was quite dead, and appeared very lean; the other was plump and still living. The part of the rock where they were found is at least fifteen feet below its surface, and is a kind of limestone. A part of it is filled with ancient sea-shells, and other marine substances. If these animals have remained in this confinement since the formation of the rock, they are probably some thousands of years old. We have put them in spirits of wine, to preserve their bodies a little longer. The workmen have promised to call us if they meet with any more, that we may examine their situation. Before a suitable bottle could be found to receive them, that which was living when we first had them appeared to be quite dead and motionless; but being in the bottle, and the spirits poured over them, he flounced about in it very vigorously for two or three minutes, and then expired.

      It is observed that animals who perspire but little can live long without food: such as tortoises, whose flesh is covered with a thick shell; and snakes, who are covered with scales, which are of so close a substance as scarcely to admit the passage of perspirable matter through them. Animals that have open pores all over the surface of their bodies, and live in air which takes off continually the perspirable part of their substance, naturally require a continual supply of food to maintain their bulk. Toads shut up in solid stone, which prevents their losing any thing of their substance, may perhaps for that reason need no supply; and being guarded against all accidents, and all the inclemencies of the air and changes of the seasons, are, it seems, subject to no diseases, and become as it were immortal.

       B. Franklin. Ref. 002

      MCXVI. TO L’ABBÉ SOULAVIE ^{Ref. 003}

      Passy, 22 September, 1782.

      Sir:—

      I return the papers with some corrections. I did not find coal mines under the calcareous rock in Derbyshire. ^{Ref. 004} I only remarked, that, at the lowest part of that rocky mountain which was in sight, there were oyster shells mixed