410 



we ever find the dart penetrated ; though at the time the 

 animals are clofe, the point may irritate ; but it is neither 

 fufficiently ftrong, nor (harp-pointed, to penetrate the 

 tough fkin with which thefe animals are furniflied; and, 

 indeed, the extremely vifcid fecretion, with which they 

 are fo copioufly provided, adheres fo flrongly to thefe 

 fpiculi, when wholly proje6led from the body, that they 

 are for a time held by it. Perhaps we may be told here- 

 after, that this tough excretory fluid is ufed as a cord to 

 regain thefe darts after they have been difcharged : but 

 fuch we fliould hold equally fabulous, with much of the 

 accounts related by various authors. 



Thefe celebrated love-darts are fub -pellucid-white, 

 and very brittle, about a quarter of an inch, or three- 

 eighths in length, and fomewhat triangular, like the 

 blade of a fmall fword. 



Some authors fcem to have confidered this as the 

 Helix Lucorum of Linn.^.us, but it certainly admits of 

 much doubt. Gmelin did not think fo, for he has 

 given all the fynonyms of this fhell to his H. ofperfa; 

 and has made his H. Lucorum a very different fliell; a 

 figure of which is given in Lister's Conckology, tab. 

 1058. fig. 1. 



Doftor TuRTON has confounded the fynonyms of the 

 afperfa with thofe of the hortevjis, not confidering the 

 former as an EngliJJi fhell, and therefore has quoted this 



fliell 



