18 THE COMMON SNAIL. 



have got somewhere out of sight. Here is a lesson for boys 

 and girls; whatever you take in hand, don't be m a hurry, 

 and if people say you are ''slow," think of the snail, and 



keep on! , -, . -, , ^^ j 



This then, is a shelled mollusk of the third class, called 

 Gasteropoda, according to the system of the French naturalist 

 Cuvier. It has a distinct head, which, like the hinder part 

 of the body, which we may call a tail if we like, projects, 

 when the creature is in motion, considerably from the shell; 

 it is also furnished with what we commonly call horns, nat- 

 uralists say tentacles, from the Latin ^^/2^o— tiying, or essaying; 

 with these the creature, as it were, feels its way; being 

 extremely sensitive; they answer the purpose of organs both 

 of sight and touch; put your finger slowly towards one of 

 them, and you will observe that, even before contact, it begins 

 to retract, or draw in, as though sensible of the approach of 

 some opposing body, as it no doubt is. These horns of the 

 snail, then, are its feelers— eyes to the blind, fingers to the 

 fingerless; so God provides for his creatures all that may be 

 necessary for their existence, and compensates for the depriva- 

 tion of one sense or organ, by sonie admirable contrivance which 

 meets the necessities of the case.* 



THE COMMON SNAIL 



Is called by naturalists Jleh'x aspersa, the generic name being 

 derived from a Greek word signifying spiral, and having refer- 

 ence to the shape of the shell; the plural is Selices, a term 

 applied to all convoluted or twisted shells, which terminate 

 in a point like a church spire: a spiral- shelled fossil is called 

 a hdicate. The specific name comes from the Latin asper — % 

 rough, whence also our English word asperity— io\x^\mQ%&, and 



• It appears likely that the little knobs at the end of the snail's feelers, are a3 

 .ome nSralists assert, in reality eyes; if so, ^s-e were xNrong m calling the creature 

 W d Yet is their position and construction so different from organs or sight gen- 

 Sally that they ser?e rather to strengthen than invalidate the above observations 

 The number of the horns varies in different kinds of snails from t>^o to six and 

 some hive none at all. These tentacles, Tvhen present, are always si uated abov» 

 the moSh; sSne of them have the knobs at the base, others at the sides; and it 

 W b"?n conjectured that they may be organs of smell, as weU as ol sight and touch. 



