15 
grassy bank, also near Bath (the exact locality I forget), I 
experienced the same strong smell of garlic, and quite expected 
to find as before the same Allium wrsinum growing somewhere in 
the hedges ; but not a plant of it was to be seen. On lowering 
my head, I then ascertained that the smell did not come from 
any plant at all, but from a small snail, which was crawling in 
considerable numbers upon the grass, or lurking near the roots. 
On holding one of them to the nose the smell of garlic was quite 
as strong as in the plant above spoken of. 
This snail is the Zonites alliarius of Conchologists, taking its. 
name from the peculiar odour which it emits. It is somewhat. 
local but not very uncommon. It is well described in Jeffrey’s. 
“British Conchology,”* and I will state what he says about it, 
his experiences having been much like my own. He says, “ This 
“snail has a very strong pungent smell of garlic, especially 
“when irritated, and I have perceived it at the distance of 
“several feet from the spot. Having found living specimens 
“under stones in a bed of wild garlic, I thought first they might 
“have fed on this herb and thus acquired the peculiar odour ; but. 
“*T afterwards observed that this scent was quite as powerful in 
“specimens collected on an open down where there was no 
“ garlic.” 
And there is a further point of much interest in the case I 
am now speaking of. This odour of garlic is not confined to the 
plant or to the snail ; it is found also in a mineral. I allude to the 
well-known arsenic, the basis of which is a peculiar metal, some- 
times met with in its pure metallic state, though more commonly 
combined with other metals. If heated to 356° Fahrenheit, it 
is volatilized, without previous fusion ; the vapour has a strong 
smell, resembling that of garlic, and this (it is said), “ to a certain 
“ extent is relied upon as proof of its presence.”+ 
* Vol. i., p. 182. . 
+ Penny Cyclopedia, vol. ii., p. 400. 
