UNIVALVE MOLLUSCA. 



423 



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 re-introducing them as human 

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

 cultivated by the Romans ; it surpasses all those of Europe in size, 

 and was found plentifully in the district of Bagnes, in the Valois- 

 Howard, having procured the species from Bagnes, found them in- 

 crease so rapidly 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 



Fig. 192. — Helix aspersa (Muller). 



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 re- 

 source to the poor in the southern departments. 



The flesh of all the species of snails is not alike in a culinary 

 point of view. Amateurs class as first in quality Helix vermiculata, 

 called at Montpellier the Little Hermit, because it buries itself so 

 deeply in its shell. Helix aspersa (Figs. 192, 193, 194) 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. 



In the north of France and round Paris Helix potnatia is the 



