On the Land and Fresh-water Shells of Wilts. 87 



Sir John accordingly attended with his balance sheet: from 

 which it appeared that there was £49 still owing, which the Justices 

 of Peace were themselves yet answerable for. Sir John had 

 received £895 ISs. 8d., and had paid £896 3s. T^d. : so that after 

 ten years trouble in the cause of the public, he was out of pocket 

 £1 Qs. Hid. : and probably glad to get off so easily. 



ON THE 



f a«lr m\ |rts|=toater ^\t\h of Wilts. 



By the Rev. J. E. Vize. 



Read before the Society during the Annual Meeting at Devizes, August 19, 18G3. 



^j^KERE are several popular errors with regard to snails and 

 .0J^| slugs which have arisen from many various causes. Man- 

 kind generally speaking, seems indisposed to pay favorable attention 

 to them ; the little child finds one of the larger and common kinds 

 (Helix aspersa) in a hedge or elsewhere, he at once gives the snail 

 the option of one of two expedients — to extend itself full length 

 in a crawling position, or else to be put to death. 



" Snail, snail, come out of your hole. 



Or else I will heat you as black as a coal." 



The male or female of mature years either passes them by, 

 frequently with a shudder, as though they were in far greater 

 danger than the shell, or else determines with a foot, a stick or 

 stone, to rid the world of what is falsely considered to be a pest 

 to society, a terror to behold, a creature, which to say the least 

 is the wholesale destroyer of fruit and vegetable gardens. Now it 

 will not be very difficult to show that snails and slugs should be 

 unmolested, as being really of immense benefit to society, so much 

 so that, if they were extinct without the creation of some other 

 beings to supply their place, fevers and pestilences would be much 

 more frequent than they are now. They select (at least all the 

 larger land ones do) damp places as the feeding grounds ; they 



