OF HARTING. 315 



cilaginous fluid exuding from the snails is allowed 

 to drop. The resulting compound is a "Syrup of 

 Snails," of which she prescribes two teaspoonfuls pro 

 dos : twice a day. We cannot but suspect that in 

 this instance science has taken a hint from her ! 



Probably not one in a thousand of those who are 

 familiar with the common snail would ever imagine 

 that, under any circumstances, it is capable of be- 

 coming musical, we happen to know, however, that 

 this phenomenon is an episode in its history. One 

 stormy evening in autumn some years since, while 

 engaged with a book in an apartment, the windows of 

 which were directly exposed to the wind and rain, we 

 were startled by a sound so sweet, so unlike anything 

 we had ever heard before, and so peculiar, that we 

 were not only puzzled to assign a probable cause for 

 it, but actually unable to form a guess as to the exact 

 spot whence it proceeded. It was often repeated at 

 irregular intervals during the evening ; occasionally 

 three or four times in the course of as many minutes ; 

 and although it was not loud, and did not continue 

 many seconds at a time, it was distinctly audible not- 

 withstanding the noise occasioned by the beating of 

 the rain against the windows, and the discord of the 

 wind in the " Pandaean pipes " on the chimney stacks. 

 Several months elapsed before we had an opportunity 

 of hearing it again. At this second performance the- 

 rain was falling as before, but the shutters of the room 

 were not closed, as they had been in the first instance ; 

 and we were enabled distinctly to trace the mysterious 

 sound to one of the windows. A light held near this 

 window at once revealed the fact that the musician 

 was no other than our friend the Helix aspersa. It 

 appeared that the friction of its foot or shell we could 

 not satisfactorily determine which-^-against the wet 

 glass had caused a vibration in the pane on which it 

 was travelling, and in this way had produced a note of 

 the same character as that which we all know may be 



