326 SUPPLEMENT 
or less numerous, in humid places, and sheltered from the 
sun’s rays, under stones, in dung, in the holes of walls, &c. 
At first perfectly transparent, they become by degrees, ‘from 
the thickening of their envelope, opake, and of a yellowish 
colour. Finally, they disclose at the end of a period which 
seems to vary a little according to the external temperature. 
The young limaces are then extremely soft, and almost 
mucous. But they crawl with their tentacula, or horns, ex- 
tended, as soon as they have come forth naturally, or even 
have been extracted artificially from the egg. We are not 
yet sufficiently informed as to the time when they become 
adult, nor as to the duration of their existence. 
They are fond of rainy seasons. When they are forced to 
remain exposed to the rays of the summer sun, as they have 
not the resource of the helices of enclosing themselves in a 
shell, they begin by transuding from their bodies a greater 
quantity of the viscous matter, and end by perishing. Ina 
very few hours after their death they are decomposed, and. 
melt into a viscous matter, which deserves to be analysed 
with a greater degree of attention than, perhaps, has as yet 
been bestowed upon it. 
The limaces are scarcely in any manner useful to the 
humanrace. Formerly many imaginary virtues were ascribed 
to the little shell of the grey slug (L. griseus), and to the 
mucosity which issues from all parts of their skin. But those 
sorts of fantasies, like many others, have had their day, and 
will go down no longer. They are still, however, ‘in some 
eases considered to be cooling, humectant, and pectoral. 
They are consequently sometimes ordered in consumptions, 
coughs, and spitting of blood. These properties are common 
to them with the helices, which are employed in preference, 
as being more easy to collect and preserve. i 
The limaces, as unfortunately is too well known, are very 
mischievous in our gardens, kitchen gardens especially, and 
