340 SUPPLEMENT 
viously to the civil war between Cesar and Pompey. He 
carefully separated each species, and succeeded in obtaining 
individuals whose shell contained octoginta quadrantes, 
about ten quarts. All this history is taken from Pliny; but 
there would appear to be some confusion in it, especially 
with respect to the size produced by education ; for Varro, 
after whom he writes, says the same only concerning the 
Mauritanian species, which naturally attained to these dimen- - 
sions. It does not appear that this mode of educating snails 
was practised for any great length of time, for Macrobius says 
nothing about it. Some authors tell us that these animals 
are still eaten in different countries, and among others, in 
Silesia, Brabant, Liege, Switzerland, Italy, and many de- 
partments of France. It is said that in the environs of 
Rochelle, they form depots of them, putting them one above 
the other in layers, between each of which moss and other 
plants are spread. It is allowed that the individuals which 
live in elevated situations are the best, and that they acquire, 
in some measure, the flavour of the plants on which they feed. 
In general, it is very probable that their flesh must be rather 
hard, in consequence of the proportional size of the foot. It 
is certain that many half-civilized nations eat them dried in 
the smoke. 
In Paris, and many other continental cities, a great quantity 
of snails is to be found in the market. But it is not as an 
article of food that they are employed. Mucilaginous broths 
are made of them for persons afflicted with maladies of the 
chest and lungs, and in such cases they have been found 
efficacious. It appears less certain that they may be em- 
ployed with advantage in incipient hernia, and that they 
exercise an astringent effect upon the inguinal ring. Of this, 
however, we are assured by a French medical writer, M. 
Georges Tarenne. He employs for this purpose the blood of 
the animal, obtained by pricking it with a sharp instrument, 
a a ia il Ht Bl gO he 
