A HISTORY OF 



heart, and blood-vessels: besides this, it has 

 a purple bag that furnishes a red matter to 

 different parts of the body, together with 

 strong muscles that hold it to the shell, and 

 which are hardened, like tendons, at their 

 insertion. 



But these it possesses in common with other 

 animals. We must now see what it has pe- 

 culiar to itself. The first striking peculiari- 

 ty is, that the animal has got its eyes on the 

 points of its largest horns. When the snail 

 is in motion, four horns are distinctly seen ; 

 but the two uppermost and longest deserve 

 peculiar consideration, both on account of the 

 various motions with which they are endaed, 

 as well as their having their eyes fixed at the 

 extreme ends of them. These appear like two 

 blackish points at their ends. When con- 

 sidered as taken out of the body, they are of 

 a bulbous or turnip-like figure ; they have but 

 one coat; and the three humours which are 

 common in the eyes of other animals, namely, 

 the vitreous, the aqueous, and the crystalline, 

 are in these very indistinctly seen. The eyes 

 the animal can direct to different objects at 

 pleasure, by a regular motion out of the body; 

 and sometimes it hides them, by a very swift 

 contraction into the belly. Under the small 

 horns is the animal's month; and though it 

 may appear too soft a substance to be fur- 

 nished with teeth, yet it lias not less than 

 eight of them, with which it devours leaves, 

 and other substances, seemingly harder than 

 itself; and with which it sometimes bites oflT 

 pieces of its own shell. 



But what is most surprising in the forma- 

 tion of this animal, are the parts that serve 

 for generation. Every snail is at once male 

 and female; and while it impregnates another, 

 is itself impregnated in turn. -The vessels 

 supplying the fluid for this purpose, are pla- 

 ced chiefly in the fore part of the neck, and 

 extend themselves over the body ; but the 

 male and female organs of generation, are 

 always found united, and growing together. 

 There is a large opening on the right side of 

 the neck, which serves for very different pur- 

 poses. As an anus it gives a passage to the 

 excrements ; as a mouth it serves for an open- 

 ing for a respiration ; and also as an organ 

 of generation, it dilates when the desire of 

 propagation begins. Within this each ani- 



mal has those parts, or something similar 

 thereto, which continue the kind. 



For some d;>ys before coition, the snails 

 gather together, and lie quite near each other, 

 eating very little in the mean time; but they 

 settle their bodies in such a posture, that the 

 neck arid head are placed upright. In the 

 mean time, the apertures on the side of the 

 neck being greutl) dilated, two organs, re- 

 sembling intestines, are seen issuing from 

 them, which some have thought to be the in- 

 struments of generation. Beside the protru- 

 sion of these, each animal is possessed of 

 another peculiarity; for, from the same aper- 

 ture, they launch forth a kind of dart at each 

 other, which is pretty hard, barbed, and end- 

 ing in a very sharp point. This is performed 

 when the apertures approach each other; 

 and then the one is seen to shoot its weapon, 

 which is received by the other, though it 

 sometimes falls to the ground; some minutes 

 after, the snail which received the weapon, 

 darts one of its own at its antagonist, which 

 is received in like manner. They then soft- 

 ly approach still nearer, and apply their bo- 

 dies one to the other, as closely as the palms 

 and fingers of the hands, when grasped toge- 

 ther. At that time the horns are seen vari- 

 ously moving in all directions ; and this 

 sometimes for three days together. The cou- 

 pling of these animals is generally thrice re- 

 peated, at intervals of fifteen days each ; 

 and at every time, a new dart is mutually 

 emitted. 



At the expiration of eighteen days, thesnails 

 produce their eggs, at the opening of the neck, 

 and hide them in the earth with the greatest 

 solicitude and industry. These eggs are in 

 great numbers, round, white, and covered 

 with a soft shell: they are also stuck to each 

 other by an imperceptible slime, like a bunch 

 of grapes, of about the size of a small pea. 



When the animal leaves the egg, it is seen 

 with a very small shell on its back, which 

 has but one convolution; but in proportion 

 as it grows, the shell increases in the number 

 of its circles. The shell always receives its 

 additions at the mouth; the first centre still 

 remaining : the animal sending forth from its 

 body that slime which hardens into a stony 

 substance, and still is fashioned into similar 

 volutions. The garden-snail seldom exceeds 



