a 
218 HELIX POMATIA. 
May when, according to Semper, the day temperature has reached 
50° to 53° Fahrenheit. 
During continued hot and dry weather, this species protects itself 
almost exactly as from the cold by burrowing a few inches into the soil, 
and then secreting a solid caleareous epiphragm similar to the hibernal one, 
and though //. pomatia is not inured to long periods of drought, and 
consequent fasting, like the xerophilous species, yet it has been known to 
live eleven months without food. 
The species is almost immune to many poisons, and though quickly 
perishing in an atmosphere saturated with camphor, can resist the effects 
of strychnine, very large doses are however eventually tetanizing as in 
other animals. 
It also possesses very absorbent tissues, and imbibes water not only by 
the skin but by the walls of the pulmonary sac and digestive tube, the 
quantity capable of being absorbed exceeding the snail itself in weight. 
Though the deposition of pearly matter has seldom been observed in 
land snails, Mr. L. E. Adams has recorded the finding of a detached almost 
spherical pearl 55 by 44 mill. within or amongst the tissues of a heavy- 
lipped specimen from Charing, Kent. 
Parasites and Enemies.—Little is known of any special enemies. 
except man himself, but the species is infested by the 'Trematode, Cercaria 
pomatic: Vaney and Conte, which as young flukes, sporocysts, and cercaria 
are present in the liver or digestive gland. 
Protective Resemblance.—Mr. H. D. Gower has remarked on the 
wonderful protective resemblance which the darker forms of the species 
present to a knobby growth when, as is sometimes the case, the shells are 
found adhering to the boles of trees. 
Mr. L. BE. Adams has also observed that when hibernating with the shell 
buried in the ground and the whitish calcareous epiphragm level with the 
surface, the resemblance to a flint stone partially imbedded in the ground 
is remarkably striking and deceptive. 
Economic Uses.—Although Heliv apertu is the snail held in the 
greatest repute asa dainty food by continental epicures, yet 1. pomatuc 
has always been a favourite dish, and even in Roman times was with other 
species carefully reared and fattened for the table in special snail farms or 
‘Cochlearia’, which were moist and somewhat shady areas surrounded by 
water, where the snails fed upon the growing vegetation, and were supplied 
with dressed meats, various aromatic herbs, and bran, flour and other 
substances boiled in or soaked with wine; this abundance of rich and 
nourishing food enabled the animals to grow to a large size, and imparted 
to them a refined and delicate flavour. 
This predilection for and prevalence of Helicophagy' among the Romans 
is, however, said not to be due to any special fondness for ‘the food, but 
toa firm belief in its venereal virtues, and is further evidenced by their 
use of a special implement called a Cochleare, made from bone, silver, or 
other material, which though shaped as a spoon at one end was pointed at 
the other to pick the molluse from the shell. 
In medieval times the Escargotitres were mainly adjuncts to the chateaus 
and monasteries where the snails were carefully tended and daintily fed, so 
that the delicacy and flavour they acquired rendered them a much sought 
for nourishment during the periods of enforced abstinence from flesh food. 
1 Monog. i., p. 424, and ff. 742-744, 
