766 Extracts from the Minute- Book of the Linnean Society. 
May 3. 
Read the following Letter, addressed to the Secre- 
tary by John Curtis, Esq., F.L.S., containing remarks 
on the habits of some Land Shells : 
* Grove Place, May 2, 1831. 
* Dear Sir,—On my return from France I brought 
home some Land Shells, which I collected near the 
celebrated fountain of Petrarch at Vaucluse, on the 
8th of last July, at which time they were close packed 
in a pill-box ; and from the high temperature of that 
part of France, and being kept for several weeks in 
my trunk, and afterwards in a dry place at home, they 
appeared, as might be expected, quite dead. 
** [ was induced however, a few days since, to try if 
they could be re-animated, although I almost thought 
it an useless experiment. l put the shells into an 
earthen vessel, close covered, and containing some wet : 
moss, when, to my astonishment, in less than twenty- 
four hours these little animals were reanimated and 
crawling about, after having been shut up without food 
or moisture for nine months. 
** The shells appear to be the Pupa tridens and the 
Clausilia rugosa, which renders it more remarkable, 
since they are species destitute of opercula. I ob- 
served that only one of the shells was adhering to 
another, and the others were quite loose in the box. 
** It is not only the extraordinary fact of these little 
animals being able to remain so long in a torpid state, 
that has induced me to request that you will do me 
the favour to lay these observations before the Linnean 
Society ; but I think it may be of service to those who 
collect shells, to know that the species inhabiting the 
land may be preserved for so long a period ; for it may 
in 
