The Land Snails. Helices 



The European Spotted Snail {H. aspersa, Miill.) is a dingy, 

 vagabondish mollusk, hated by gardeners, whose choicest and 

 tenderest plants it attacks by night in garden or greenhouse. 

 The five-whorled shell is brownish yellow, with five dark brown 

 bands made of spots, and a thick, white, recurved lip. The 

 average shell is somewhat over an inch in diameter. 



Blackbirds, thrushes and glow-worms conspire with man 

 to exterminate this mollusk, but they merely check its ravages. 

 Though eaten in England it is not a choice species. In America 

 it is one of the most prosperous and best-hated of immigrant 

 mollusks, as its appetite for vegetables and flowers is insatiable. 

 I remember with what vindictive heel my neighbour in southern 

 California crushed these destroyers of his nursery stock. 



In the snailery a brood of these snails may be raised, and 

 every step in the life history of each robust youngster watched 

 from the egg. Vegetable food, such as lettuce and cabbage, 

 should be growing for them, and their habits carefully observed. 

 Nothing is more entertaining and instructive than this study. 

 Two years brings the snail to maturity. 



"Left-handed," or sinistral specimens of this species are 

 worth looking for. They occur occasionally, and are greatly 

 prized by collectors. There are plenty of enthusiasts ready to 

 pay a guinea ($5) for every perfect adult shell. 



If one keeps the subject in mind, and drops an inquiry here 

 and there, he will gather quite a fund of curious information 

 about the uses of snails from country folk of the old-fashioned 

 sort who hoard traditions carefully. A walking trip through 

 England will be especially productive, for that humid climate 

 has always been favourable for these mollusks. If you chance 

 to look pale and thin you will be told that a diet of live snails 

 or slugs will cure consumption. It will also build up the consti- 

 tutions of anaemic persons and sickly children. Snails are pre- 

 scribed by local physicians for a number of complaints, including 

 asthma, dropsy, eye troubles, rheumatism and corns. Among 

 reci'pes copied by Lovell from old books, I find the following: 



Snales which bee in shell beat together with bay salt and 

 mallowes, and laid to the bottomes of your feet and to the wristes 

 of your handes, before the fit cometh, appeaseth the ague. 



Slime of slugs and snails was counted a sure cure for eczema. 

 Credit is still given to this remedy by intelligent people. A 



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