HEL1CID.E. 405 



(Cochlearia, Yarro ; Cochlearum vivaria, Pliny), in order to fatten 

 the animals, as is now done with oysters. They were fed for this 

 end upon various plants mixed with soup ; when it was desired to 

 improve the flavour a little wine and sometimes laurel leaves were 

 added. These parks were formed in humid shady places surrounded 

 by a foss or a wall. Pliny has even transmitted to us the name of 

 the inventor of the Coehlearias, a certain Fulvius Hispinus. Addison 

 describes with details one of these establishments kept up by the 

 Capuchins at Fribourg in Switzerland, in imitation of the ingenious 

 Roman gourmet we have named. 



Among the Eomans, snails were served at the funeral repast. 

 Certain heaps of their shells, which are found in the cemetery of 

 Pompeii, are the remains of those funeral festivities with which the 

 inhabitants of the buried city honoured the tombs of their friends and 

 relations. 



The practice of eating snails had fallen into disuse in Europe 

 when, in the seventeenth century, John Howard, the philanthropist, 

 began to collect them with the view of reintroducing them as human 

 food. He chose Helix Varronis, which was probably the species culti- 

 vated by the Eomans ; it surpasses all those of Europe in size, and 

 was found plentifully in the district of Bagnes, in the Yalois. Howard, 

 having procured the species from Bagnes, found their increase so 

 rapid that the crops were likely to be devoured by the swarms of 

 molluscs thus brought together, and steps were at once taken to 

 destroy them. In other parts of Europe the snail continues to be 

 sought for as an article of luxury. They are consumed at Vienna in 

 great numbers during Lent, supplies being brought from the Swiss 

 canton of Appenzell. At Naples a soup made from Helix nemoralis 

 is sold publicly to the strange population with which the streets of 

 that city swarm, for the king's pavement is their bed-chamber, dining- 

 saloon,'and work-room. In France, snails are a valuable resource to 

 the poor in the southern departments. 



The flesh of all snails is not alike in a culinary point of view. 

 Amateurs class as first in quality Helix vermicula, called at Mont- 

 pelier the Little Hermit, because it buries itself so deeply in its 

 shell. Helix aspersa (Figs. 193, 194, 195) is thought to be more 

 tender and delicate. In Provence a species is called tapada, that is, 

 " closed," from the cretaceous deposit with which it closes its shell. 



