SNAILS. 641 
and active career. Napoleon managed his greatest campaign 
whilst sleeping for only four, or five hours a night. Brunel, the 
famous engineer, worked for twenty hours a day, and rarely went 
to bed; he slept for two, or three hours in his arm-chair, and 
was ready at early dawn for the work of the day; he is said to 
have never seemed tired, or out of spirits. Humboldt is recorded 
as saying: ‘As I get old I want more sleep,—four hours at 
least. When I was young two hours were quite enough for me.” 
He died at the age of eighty years. Littre, the great French 
philologist, spent nearly twenty years in compiling his Dictionary ; 
and during all that time he never stopped work until three o’clock 
in the morning, and was at it again before eight o’clock a.m. 
He lived to be eighty. It was John Wesley’s dictum that “ six 
hours should be allowed for sleep to a man, seven to a woman, 
and eight to a fool.” 
SNAILS. 
In Pliny’s day the Snail (Limaz) was given, when beaten up in 
warm water, for coughs. It has been used in medicine from 
very old times. The Romans were very partial to (Apple) 
Snails, which they fattened in special cochlearia, feeding them 
with bran soaked in wine until they attained quite large dimen- 
sions. Charles the Fifth of Spain died of indigestion brought 
on by eating immoderately of Snails. In this country the early 
mediciners likewise prescribed Snails. In the Arcana Fawrfaxiana 
it stands ordered: “For one that cannot make water, take 
Shell Snayles, and take out the Snayle; wash the shells very 
cleane, drye them, and beate them into powder; then take ye 
powder, and drinke it in white wine, or els in thyn broth.” 
Halliwell quotes a still older recipe about slugs: “ Take the 
rede Snyle that crepis houseles, and stepe it in water, and geder 
(gather) the fatte that comes of thame.” Mrs. Delaney, again 
(in 1758), advised that “ Two or three Snails should be boiled 
in the barley-water which Mary takes, who coughs at night ; 
she must know nothing of it; they give no manner of taste.” 
Apple Snails (Helix pomatia) such as are cultivated on the 
Continent for the table, and for medicinal pufposes, are found 
but seldom in England, and only where Roman remains still 
endure. The first importation of Snails into England has been 
attributed to Sir Kenelm Digby (1645) for his wife. Also the 
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