REMEDIAL POWERS. 79 



this portion is then passed along the tongue, is torn and rasped 

 by the sharp prickles, and finally pressed backward to the 

 entrance of the gullet. Having a good deal of work to do in the 

 way of eating, the little fellows manage to get along pretty 

 quickly, and sometimes make a very audible noise while about 

 it. Perhaps some of our curious readers the next tune they 

 meet with a Snail on the look-out for provender, instead of 

 crushing it or flinging it away, will be good enough to present it 

 with a fresh cabbage leaf; in which case it is highly probable 

 that, if they will only listen attentively, they will hear the little 

 Mollusc lustily munching the proffered dainty, and smacking his 

 lips with great satisfaction thereat. 



"We spoke above of flinging a Snail away unfortunately a 

 calamity to the members of the Snail fraternity which they 

 often have to bear; but against all irremediable injury from 

 which they appear to be specially guarded. The consequence to 

 the Snail of such (flinging is, of course, in most cases, a fall that 

 makes a perfect wreck of the shell ; and no humane person, that 

 once sees how painfully the poor creature writhes and sputters 

 after such a crushing fall, would repeat the act. Not even a Snail 

 may be put to needless pain ; kill it, by all means, but do not 

 maim it merely, and doom it for weeks or months to bootless 

 torture. 



The remedial powers of the Snail are truly remarkable. The 

 repair of a broken shell is a small matter that is soon accom- 

 plished ; while, under favourable circumstances, and in course of 

 time, the most serious injuries or losses are made good. The 

 Abbe Spallanzani, who had a strange taste for putting out the 

 eyes of bats, and other scientific cruelties of the kind, cut away 

 the tentacles of H. pomatia and nemoralis, and in about two 

 mouths found them perfectly renewed, even to the eyes at the 

 tips. In other experiments he removed not only the tentacles 

 but the entire head, including the brain, the mouth and its ap- 

 pendages, and a mass of the muscle, and yet the whole of the lost 

 parts were reproduced, and with such perfection that it was im- 

 possible in some cases to distinguish any difference between the 

 newly formed parts and those that had been cut away. The 

 poor Snails that were thus experimented upon retired into their 

 shells the moment the operation was over, and there remained for 

 many weeks and in some cases for months, in perfect quiescence, 



