104 THE DISPERSAL OF SHELLS. 



vigour.^ Mr. Jenner Weir has been good enough to 

 inform me of the resuscitation of a snail, beHeved to 

 belong to this species, which had been in his possession, 

 in a dormant state, for about a year. 



Helix lactea. — Concerning this snail a case of 

 much interest has been recorded by Mr. J. S. Gaskoin. A 

 specimen, which appears to have contained fertile eggs 

 when captured, and which had subsequently remained 

 torpid for more than four years, revived and lived for 

 some time, alone, under a bell-glass, where, notwith- 

 standing the long suspension of animation, it became 

 surrounded with a family of about thirty "points " or 

 young ones. In April, 1 849, four or five specimens, which 

 had been obtained from a dealer, were placed in water 

 to be cleaned for the cabinet, and in the course of an 

 hour or two one of them resuscitated and escaped from 

 the vessel. The shells had been selected from many 

 others, ail of which had been stored in a dry dusty 

 draw^er in the dealer's shop for more than two years, 

 and had been imported by a merchant of Mogador, in 

 whose possession they had been, in a similar condition, 

 for a still longer period. The test of submersion in 

 water was tried with the whole of the dealer's stock, but 

 all seemed to be dead. The individual which had 

 revived was placed, quite alone, under a large bell-glass 

 on a tub of earth, and lived well on cucumbers, cabbage- 



^ W. Baird, " Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist.," (2), vi. (1850), pp. 68-9 ; 

 Woodward's " Manual," ed. 4, rep. 1890, pp. 4 and 14 ; S. P. Wood- 

 ward, "Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist,," (3), iii. (1859), p. 448; A. 

 Binney, "Terr, air-breathing Moll," i, (1851), pp. 196-7. 



