The Naturalist. 47 



upon a negative fact — that of the sounds not being repeated 

 after the snail was dead. Now, the circumstance that appears 

 to us as rather suspicious is this, that the young lady's atten- 

 tion should be directed towards the snail while the music was 

 going on, and yet that she should not perceive the sounds 

 proceeded from the direction in which the snail was crawling. 

 But it may be asked, How, then, can you account for the music 

 ceasing after the death of the snail ? Here, we must admit, 

 there is a difficulty ; and the only solution we can suggest is, 

 that, for the purpose of annihilating the snail, the young lady 

 retired from the window. 



We have thought it right to dwell minutely upon this re- 

 lation, and sift the evidence rather closely ; for, if it really be 

 the case that the snail possesses musical organs, the fact is 

 one of the highest physiological importance ; and we do not 

 know anything that would give the Naturalist so high a repu- 

 tation, both here and on the Continent, as its being the first 

 scientific journal to announce and demonstrate their existence. 



If, on the other hand, subsequent investigations should at 

 all confirm the conjectures which we have ventured to throw 

 out, as to the way in which a mistake might have originated, we 

 think our contemporary is bound to rectify the error which his 

 fair correspondent has innocently fallen into ; for, should the 

 Naturalist ever have an extensive circulation, it is not bv any 

 means desirable, considering the present state of society, that 

 mammas and guardians of young ladies should imbibe a no- 

 tion that the soft musical sounds sometimes heard in the dusk 

 of the evening originate with snails. 



We have remarked that the above articles contain the only 

 original information upon natural history in the first number; 

 though we cannot deny but that there are some bold excursive 

 ideas, startling conceptions, &c, possessing undisputed claims 

 to originality. The following may serve as an illustration : — 



" Besides, those ' stars ' of genius follow the law of all other stars, by 

 being conspicuous only in the dark, and more conspicuous the more pro- 

 found the obscurity is, and the more vacant the space athwart which they 

 are seen. In the mighty darkness of those ages, during which the com- 

 bined mischief of reckless war, and senseless superstition, had well-nigh 

 banished science from the earth, a single scintillation, and that too of some 

 false light — of some ignis fatuus of the polluted air — was sufficient to 

 constitute a star of the first magnitude, after which the benighted children 

 of men wondered and worshipped ; and this they were prone to endow 

 with 'airs from heaven ' or 'blasts from hell,' upon as slender grounds as 

 those which called forth their wonder and their worship. But as the dawn 

 of true knowledge broke, and the sun of science neared the horizon, the 

 stars in that part waxed dim and disappeared ; and when this glorious 

 morning to the human mind had so far advanced as to show, as it were, to 

 the great body of the people upon the earth the objects immediately around 

 them, in their true colours, so that each man might observe with his own 



