766 Extracts frojn the Minute-Book of the Linnean Society. 



May 3. Read the following Letter, addressed to the Secre- 

 tary bjr 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 J uly, 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. 



" I was induced however, a few days since, to try if 

 they could be re-animated, although I almost thought 

 it an useless experiment. 1 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 1 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 



