Shooting Stars. 25 



gested to me the thought, whether this might not be the 

 spawn of some animal. It could not be the spawn of a frog, 

 but it might be the spawn of a snail which frequents such 

 meadows, such as the Umax rufus, agrestis, stagnalis,, &lc. 

 I compared the descriptions which are given in Cuvier's 

 Comparative Anatomy, translated by Mekel, in Oken's Nat- 

 ural History, in the Natural History for Schools, in Gold- 

 fuss's Manual of Zoology, &c. where I found some light up- 

 on the spawn of snails. Oken in his Natural History for 

 Schools remarks of the Umax stagnalis, that " its spawn is a 

 gelatinous cylinder, an inch long and a line thick, in which a 

 dozen yellow, small eggs are enclosed ; that this cylinder 

 commonly adheres to aquatic plants ; and within a fortnight 

 or three weeks, the small snails are hatched." He further 

 observes in his Introduction to Natural History, article U- 

 max, that the eggs are first lodged in a cyst or rather a sack, 

 and as it is found in all snails, it probably secretes the jelly 

 for the egg cylinder or ball. " Its contents are compact, 

 soft like cerate, and reddish brown, on which account they 

 have been considered as purple, which is not the case." 

 Though the cylinders of the Umax are very small, we must 

 still believe, that our substance was derived from the Umax 

 rufus, or from some other species, and that the great size of 

 the mass was derived wholly from water ; of which we are 

 persuaded, from the experiments which we made with boil- 

 ing water, showing that the contents of a very small body 

 may be distended to almost any volume by water alone. 



This view of mine was further confirmed, after I had put a 

 portion of the substance into a saucer, and placed it before 

 one of the windows of my study ; when after some days, a 

 small naked snail, a fourth of an inch long, was found in it. 

 Hence I believe, I am able to decide with convincing reasons 

 in favor of the opinion, that the white gelatinous masses 

 which are found in wet meadows, and which are generally 

 considered as the substance of shooting stars, are byno means 

 derived from the celestial regions ; but they are really the 

 spawn of a certain snail, which, though of an insignificant 

 bulk in its natural state, so as scarcely to attract notice, ac- 

 quires its extensive volume from the water of moist places, 

 and assumes a white, gelatinous appearance. Further, it is 

 the nature of this spawn, that it is found only in wet places. 



Whether the real substance of the meteor called the shoot- 

 ing star ever may have been found, I verv much doubt. He. 



Vol. XVI.— No. 1. 4 



