8 EDIBLE BRITISH MOLLISKS. 



from a weak chest. M. Figuier assisted in finding the 

 snails in the holes in the garden wall, and under leaves, 

 and M. Laborde crashed the mollusks with a stone, pick- 

 ing off the pieces of broken shells, then rolling the fish 

 in powdered sugar swallowed them. The remedy was 

 evidently efficacious, as twenty years later M. Laborde 

 still held his position as tenor, and sang at the theatre 

 at Brussels and also at the opera in Paris.* 



In the ' Meddygon Myddvai/ published by the Welsh 

 MSS. Society, the following recipes are found: — 



For an Impostume (whitlow) . — Take a snail out of its 

 shell, and bruising it small, pound it into a plaster and 

 apply it to the finger ; it will ripen and break it, and it 

 should then be dressed like any other wound. For " a 

 patient who is burnt " it recommends a plaster of mallows, 

 snail-shells, pennywort, and linseed pounded, and applied 

 until the part is healed without even uncovering it. 



In olden times it was supposed that the small grits of 

 sand found in the horns of snails, introduced into hollow 

 teeth, removed the pain instantaneously ; and that the 

 ashes of empty snail-shells mixed with myrrh were good 

 for the gums. (Pliny's Nat. Hist. vol. v. p. 431. )f 



Pliny also recommends " snails beaten up raw and 

 taken in 3 cyathi of warm water for a cough," and a snail 

 diet for internal pains, the snails to be cooked as fol- 

 lows : — "They must first be left to simmer in water for 

 some time without touching the contents of the shell ; 

 after which, without any other addition, they must be 

 grilled upon hot coals, and eaten with wine and garum " 

 (chap. 15, book xxx.), (a kind of fish-sauce). 



* ' La Yie et les Mceurs des Animaux,' p. 386. 



t Throughout this volume I have used the translations of Pliuy and 

 Athenseus, in Bohn's series of Classical Authors. 



