HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



189 



died at this place a young man who in early life fell 

 a victim to this disease, but who, by careful attention 

 to personal habits, managed to drag along to his 

 twenty-second year. During the first two or three 

 years of his illness the skill of all the loca', and at 

 least two or three metropolitan practitioners was 

 called into requisition, but without avail, and even- 

 tually, on the advice of friends, who boasted of being 

 competent to give a corporeal as well as an ocular 

 demonstration of the virtues of the treatment, he 

 entered heartily on a course of snail eating. The 

 animals were eaten in moderate quantities twice per 

 diem — morning and evening — and were collected for 

 him while the dew yet bathed the herbage. The 

 creatures consisted chiefly of Helix nemoralis and 

 horteiisis, and a small, slimy, shelless animal desig- 

 nated in this neighbourhood "the dew snail." 

 Gruesome as the treatment may appear to our refined 

 tastes, for three years it proved in this young man's 

 case the only antidote to the ravages of consumption. 

 I have a yet more remarkable case before my eye, 

 this time that of a middle-aged man who has so far 

 freed himself from the grip of consumption as to be 

 able to carry on his business engagements. Several 

 years since he was totally prostrated by this disease ; 

 in fact, his case was such as to excite the most 

 alarming apprehension in his family. A course of 

 vegetable diet and the snail treatment was prescribed, 

 and adopted, and to-day, although not the strongest 

 of men, as a merchant and general business-man he 

 has no rival in his immediate neighbourhood. I may 

 say that nearly twenty years have elapsed since he 

 became free of his enemy. As in taking cod-liver 

 oil, so in eating snails ; what was at first a repulsive 

 experiment becomes in time a toothsome pastime. 

 Those who have undergone the snail-eating treat- 

 ment, though the disease may have been successfully 

 removed, and their case necessitates no further use of 

 the animal, will eat them in quantities and with 

 apparent relish. Like tomatoes, they seem to im- 

 prove on acquaintance. I have never before heard 

 of snails being used as "eye applications," but, as a 

 remarkable fact, I have long known them to be used, 

 and with unequivocal success, as poultices for gather- 

 ings. The snails are pounded into a jelly with a 

 pestle of some kind, spread on a piece of clean linen, 

 and applied like any other poultice. — Fred. H. Da-\y, 

 Po7isanooth. 



Froc;s ax Antidote for Bronchitis. — While 

 the question of rustic recipes for virulent diseases is 

 on the tapis, I would mention that in this neighbour- 

 hood the virtues of a young frog in alarming cases of 

 bronchitis, like Cesar's wife, has long been "above 

 suspicion." The animal chosen for the occasion is 

 generally about one inch and a half in length. The 

 operator seizes the frog by its fore-legs, opens his 

 own mouth to an alarming gauge, places the slimy 

 creature in position, and heigh, presto ! it disappears 

 down his oesophagus ! The philosophy of the treat- 

 ment was an obscure point to me until a ^^w weeks 

 since a rustic lifted the veil by explaining that the 

 frog in its endeavours to free itself from its uncom- 

 fortable position, "clawed away the phlegm from 

 the windpipe, and thereby made breathing much 

 easier." I have friends of unquestionable integrity 

 who declare they have seen frogs thus eaten alive, 

 with marvellous results to the health of the operator. 

 — Fred. H. Davey, Ponsanooth. 



Pha'sical Human Measurements.— The com- 

 mon belief that woman has a proportionally longer 

 trunk than man is not confirmed by the researches 

 of the Professors of Hygiene at Amherst College, 



United States. Two thousand students of this great 

 institution have been subjected to scientific measure- 

 ments, with the result that although the average 

 male is found to be only just over seven per cent, 

 taller than the average female, in length of trunk he 

 exceeds her by eleven per cent. In the length of the 

 lower limbs there is a difference of nine per cent, in 

 favour of the male. Where the female really out- 

 tops the male is in the head and neck. 



White Heather. — Last year I procured two 

 little white pieces of the true heather {E. tetralix) on 

 a small expanse of moorland in N, Staffordshire. It 

 may be of interest to readers to know it can be found 

 in this county." — B. C. Robinson. 



Coccus cataphractus. — H. A. asks (Scienxe- 

 GossiP for July, 1891) where this scale insect is to 

 be found. Search among bog mosses in June. 

 Ireland, Scotland, and Cumberland are good locali- 

 ties. — C. Brooksbank, 5 Longridge Road, Kensington. 



The Cost of Fidelity. — "Sweep" is a collie 

 some three years of age, very affectionate, and a 

 great favourite. His attachment and fidelity to his 

 mistress are verj' great. During a prolonged illness 

 last year he scarcely ever left her room. Neither 

 food nor water would tempt him, and neither nurse 

 nor ser\'ant could drive him from a position under- 

 neath the sick-bed which he had appropriated to 

 himself. A short time ago the poor brute's fidelity 

 cost him dear. His mistress was suddenly called 

 away by train. In the bustle of starting he escaped 

 from home and found his way to the railway station. 

 He attempted to enter the railway carriage, but was 

 prevented and driven some distance off, where he 

 remained until the train had started. He then came 

 bounding down the platform, eluded the porters who 

 tried to stop him, caught the train afier it had left 

 the platform, and looked up for his mistress. Failing 

 to find her, he darted under the train, where he was 

 seen to roll over several times, but eventually escaped 

 on the opposite side with a smashed tail. The 

 decision of the veterinary surgeon was that the tail 

 must be amputated or the dog destroyed. Poor 

 Sweep had been very proud of his tail, and used to 

 curl it up over his back. He now has a stump about 

 two inches long, and he may often be seen looking 

 round as if anxious to discover what has become of 

 the missing caudal appendage. — F. T. S., IVorcester. 



Abnormal Flowers. — I enclose flowers of the 

 common Canterbury bell, having all the sepals 

 coloured like the corolla. The whole of the blooms 

 on one large plant resemble those enclosed, and I 

 may note that last year I saw in a friend's garden 

 several plants of the same campanula, on which the 

 sepals, also coloured, were joined at the edges, so as 

 to form second and outer bells. — Francis Brent, 

 Plymouth. 



Dogs of War. — In France, Italy, Germany, and 

 Austria, as well as in Bosnia and the Herzegovina, 

 so-called war-dogs have been kept, in order to test 

 their watchfulness for the benefit of the military 

 service. According to general report, the plan has 

 answered excellently with the outposts as well as 

 with the patrol. But to the German army belongs 

 the merit of having made use of the dog's sagacity 

 for humane purposes in time of war, and it is 

 probable that before long a number of fresh canine 

 recruits will be permanently attached to the regi- 

 ments, their office being to search for the wounded. 

 The Prussian Jiiger battalions have already a number 

 of such dogs on trial, all of them being thoroughly 



