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The others, which are the true and recognised "toad-stones" or "Bufonius lapis," are circular, slightly convex "stones," of a drab colour, with a smooth enamel-like surface. They are plate-like discs, being of thin substance and concave on the lower surface, which has an upstanding rim.
This was credibly told Mizaldus for truth by one of the French King's physicians, which affirmed that he did see the trial thereof." We have thus before us the actual things called toad-stones, and believed by Shakespeare and his contemporaries to be found in the head of the toad.
A drab colour like that of the skin of the common toad is given to them by the iron salts present in many oolitic rocks; those found in the wealden of the Isle of Wight are black. That the "toad-stones" mounted in ancient rings are really the teeth of a fish has been already recorded by the Rev. They undoubtedly are the palatal teeth of the fossil extinct ganoid fish Lepidotus.
He then describes the actual stone which passes as the toad-stone, or "Bufonius lapis," and says that it is also called batrachite, or brontia, or ombria. His description exactly corresponds with the "toad-stones" which are well known at the present day in collections of old rings. The palate of the fossil fish Lepidotus, showing the stud-like teeth in position.
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