38 TENACITY OF LIFE 



CHAP. 



and placing them in tepid water, one of them came out of its 

 shell, and the next day ate some cabbage leaf. A month or two 

 afterwards it began repairing the lip of its shell, which was 

 broken when it was first affixed to the tablet. 



While resident in Porto Santo, from 27th April to 4th May 

 1848, Mr. S. P. Woodward ^ collected a number of Helices and 

 sorted them out into separate pill-boxes. On returning home, 

 these boxes were placed in empty drawers in an insect cabinet, 

 and on 19th October 1850, nearly two and a half years after- 

 wards, many of them were found to be still alive. A whole 

 bagful of H. tiirricula, collected on the Ilheo de Cima on 24th 

 April 1849, were all alive at the above-mentioned date. 



In September 1858 Mr. Brj^ce Wright sent ^ to the British 

 Museum two specimens of H. desertorum which had been dor- 

 mant for four years. They were originally collected in Egypt 

 by a Mr. Vernedi, who, in May 1854, while stopping at one of 

 the stations in the desert, found a heap of thorn-bushes lying in 

 a corner of the building, rather thickly studded with the snails. 

 He picked off fifteen or twenty specimens, which he carried 

 home and locked up in a drawer, where they remained undis- 

 turbed until he gave two to Mr. Wright in September 1858. 



In June 1855 Dr. Woodward placed specimens of H. candi- 

 dissima and H. aperta in a glass box, to test their tenacity of 

 life ; he writes of their being still alive in April 1859. 



Mr. R. E. C. Stearns records ^ a case of Buliminiis pallidior 

 and H. Veatchii from Cerros I. living without food from 1859 

 to March 1865. 



H. Aucapitaine mentions * a case of H, lactea found in cal- 

 cinated ground in a part of the Sahara heated to 122° F., where 

 no rain was said to have fallen for five years. The specimen re- 

 vived after being enclosed in a bottle for three and a half years. 



In August 1863, Mr. W. J. Sterland^ put specimens of H. 

 nemoralis in a box and afterwards placed the box in his cabinet ; 

 in November 1866 one specimen was discovered to be alive. 



Gaskoin relates ^ a case in which specimens of H. lactea were 

 purchased from a dealer in whose drawer they had been for two 



1 Ann. 3fag. ^^at. Hist. (2) vi. p. 489. 2 jn^ (3) iii. p. 443. 



3 Amer. Nat. xi. (1877) p. 100 ; Proc. Calif. Ac. iii. p. 329. 



4 Gaz. Med. Alger. 1865, 5th Jan. p. 9. ^ Science Gossip, 1867, p. 40. 

 6 Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist. (2) ix. p. 498. 



