18 THE COMMON SNAIL. 



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

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

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

 keep on! 



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

 Gasteropoda, according to the system of the French naturalist 

 Cuvicr. It has a distinct head, which, like the liinder 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 tento — trj'ing, or essaying; 

 witli tliese tlie 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 tliough 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 some admirable contrivance which 

 meets the necessities of the case.'''' 



THE COMMOX .SXAIL 



Is called by naturalists Helix 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 Helices, a term 

 a};plied to all convoluted or twisted shells, which tenninate 

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

 a helicate. The specific name comes from the Latin asper — 

 rough, whence also our English word af^perity — roughness, and 



• It appears likely that the little knohs at the end of the snail'ss feelers, are, as 

 some naturalists assert, in reality eyes; if so, we were -wronp in calling the creature 

 blind. Yet is their position and "constniction so different from orpans of sight gen- 

 erally, that they serve rather to strengtlien than invalidate the above observations. 

 The "number of the horns varies in different kinds of snails from two to six, and 

 some have none at all. These tentacles, when present, a-e always situated above 

 the mouth; some of them have the knobs at the base, ethers at the sides; and it 

 has been conjectured that they may be crgr.ns of smell, as well as of sight and touch. 



DSi 



