THE NAUTILUS. 79 
Please bear in mind that our Chapter reports are due next month 
(December). It is expected that our volume of Transactions will 
be very large this year. Write only on one side of paper eight by 
ten inches in size. Leave a margin of one and one-half inches at 
the left. Every member is expected to send in a report. A. short 
one will be better than none. 
The election of officers for the Chapter also occurs in December. 
‘The President and General Secretary, who also acts as Treasurer, 
are the officers to be elected. Those who have not paid dues in 
advance will please bear them in mind. 
RAISING BABY SNAILS. 
{From the Transactions of the Isaac Lea Conchological Chapter. | 
Prof. Keep once inquired, in the Popular Science News, “ Did 
‘any one ever raise baby snails?” I copy from an old note book: 
“May 24, 1886, Mesodon thyroides deposited forty-three eggs. All 
hatched between 4 P. M., June 8 and noon June 9. June 23 found 
fifty-seven eggs.” They were in two nests, and I probably removed 
the mother before her day’s work was done, as I found fourteen 
more immediately after, making seventy-one. “ July 11, sixty-nine. 
-July 20, forty-seven.” Whole number deposited in four days less 
than two months by one snail, 230. 
Those hatched June 8 show, on July 1,small umbilicus, 2+ whorls, 
and on July 8, three full whorls. July 23, four whorls, umbilicus 
partly covered. Shell so thin it is almost impossible to handle. 
The following January, nearly five whorls, lip thickening and 
slightly everted. Callous on the body-whorl, but no tooth. 
If any one interested in the study of mollusca could raise young, 
from any or all species in their vicinity, it would not only be in- 
structive, but would save time and patience, when an undeveloped 
shell is found, in trying to find out what it is. The tiny youngsters 
have sometimes very little resemblance to an old one. I am rarely 
without one or two colonies. 
