76 SEVEN- YEAK SLEEPERS 



and muscles of the creature himself to wither unobserved 

 upon its native shores. At the British Museum the desert 

 snail might have snoozed away his inglorious existence un- 

 suspected, but for a happy accident which attracted public 

 attention to his remarkable case in a most extraordinary 

 manner. On March 7, 1850, nearly four years later, it 

 was casually observed that the card on which he reposed 

 was slightly discoloured ; and this discovery led to the 

 suspicion that perhaps a living animal might be temporarily 

 immured within that papery tomb. The Museum author- 

 ities accordingly ordered our friend a warm bath (who shall 

 say hereafter that science is unfeeling!), upon which the 

 grateful snail, waking up at the touch of the familiar 

 moisture, put his head cautiously out of his shell, walked 

 up to the top of the basin, and began to take a cursory 

 survey of British institutions with his four eye-bearing 

 tentacles. So strange a recovery from a long torpid condi- 

 tion, only equalled by that of the Seven Sleepers of Ephesus, 

 deserved an exceptional amount of scientific recognition. 

 The desert snail at once awoke and found himself famous. 

 Nay, he actually sat for his portrait to an eminent zoo- 

 logical artist, Mr. Waterhouse ; and a woodcut from the 

 sketch thus procured, with a history of his life and ad- 

 ventures, may be found even unto this day in Dr. Wood- 

 ward's ' Manual of the Mollusca,' to witness if I lie. 



I mention this curious instance first, because it is the 

 best authenticated case on record (so far as my knowledge 

 goes) of any animal existing in a state of suspended anima- 

 tion for any long period of time together. But there are 

 other cases of encysted or immured animals which, though 

 less striking as regards the length of time during which 

 torpidity has been observed, are much more closely 

 analogous to the real or mythical conditions of the toad-in- 

 a-hole. That curious West African mud-fish, the Lepido- 



