4.6 Natural History of Molluscous Animals : — 
animal was esteemed a delicacy by the ancients, more especially 
when it was in a pregnant condition ; and, from the high en- 
comiums bestowed by Captain Cook on a soup he made from 
it, the fish would seem to merit the attention of even modern 
epicures. It is eaten at the present day by the Italians, and 
by the modern Greeks during Lent. * 
The list of the terrestrial species is equally short, for I re- 
member only one, the Helix pomatia+ (jg. 8.), which has 
been employed as food; 
but it is one of some 
celebrity, and of which 
a good deal has been 
said. The Romans took 
great pains in rearing 
these snails. ‘They kept 
them in sties called 
cochledria, which were 
generally constructed 
under rocks or emi- : 
nences moistened by a passing stream. If, however, the sty 
was not sufficiently humid, a water-pipe, bored full of holes, 
like a watering-pot, was introduced, by which means it was 
continually sprinkled and kept in a favourable state.{ Here 
the snails required little attendance or food, supplying them- 
selves as they crawled about the sides or floor of their prison; 
but, when it was wished to fatten them, they were fed with 
bran and sodden wine; and, on this generous fare, they grew 
occasionally to such a size that, according to Varro, the shell 
would hold full ten quarts! § You need no longer hold up 
to imitation the temperance of the younger Pliny, whose sup- 
per consisted of only three snails, two eggs, a barley cake, a 
lettuce, sweet wine, and snow ; but, alas! participating in that 
degeneracy which is said to characterise the human race of 
the present day, our snails never attain the twentieth part of 
* Pennant’s Brit. Zool., vol. iv. p. 119.; and the Travels of Pallas and 
Clarke. 
+ I presume the “vine snails,” which Pallas repeatedly mentions as a 
common food to the modern Greeks, are identical with this. He speaks of 
their using xine or ten other sorts, but the species are not distinguished. 
tf The cochlearia were invented by Fulvius Hirpinus, a little before the 
civil war with Pompey the Great. (Plin. Hist. Nat., lib. ix. cap. 82.) 
§ “ Ut cochlea quoque altiles ganeam implerent: cujus artis gloria in 
eam magnitudinem perducta sit, ut octoginta quadrantes caperent singularum 
calices. Auctor est M. Varro.” (Plin. Hist. Nat., lib. ix. cap. 82.) The 
thing is quite incredible ; but, at the same time, we may remark that a dif- 
ferent and larger species than the H. pomatia might be alluded to, for the 
Romans brought land-shells, for their stews, from different countries, and 
seem to haye used several species, 
