150 UTILIZATION OF MINUTE LIFE. 



Chimborazo, in the forests of Guiana and Brazil, 

 and on the coasts of the Mediterranean in Europe, 

 Asia, and Africa, as well as in the British Isles, 

 Belgium, Germany, etc. 



The latter species, as H. pomatia, H. horticola, 

 etc., when boiled in milk, is said to afford a light 

 and strengthening food for invalids ; and for many 

 years the large Apple Snail (if. pomatia), the Red 

 Arion (Arion rufus) a reddish-brown slug, often 

 met with in damp places, and extremely common in 

 the neighbourhood of Brussels and a few others, 

 have been employed in medicine, in the form of 

 sweet syrups, for colds, sore throats, etc. Their 

 emollient qualities are owing to the large propor- 

 tion of mucilage they contain. Braconnot extracted 

 8 per cent, of this mucilage and 84 per cent, of 

 water from snails ; the remainder consisted of a few 

 substances not well known, the principal of which 

 he has called Hmacine. 



M. Figuier says that alcohol extracts from H. 

 pomatia a medicinal substance, which he calls 

 helicine, although it appears to be a mixture of 

 different principles, the nature of which has not 

 been determined, and, in all probability, does not 

 differ from the substance called fi helicine " by 

 Dr. De Lamarre of Paris, who has employed it for 

 many years in the treatment of phthisis. It is, 

 however, but another of the thousand and one phar- 



