INSECTS AND OTHER ANIMAL Pests INJURIOUS TO FIELD BEANS 979 
the eyes may be withdrawn down the tentacle, and in young, transparent 
specimens they may be readily seen even after they have been retracted 
into the head. Slugs have the power of secreting from pores in the body, 
and especially from the anterior ventral surface of the foot, a slimy sub- 
stance known as mucus. The shell-concealing mantle has, near its pos- 
terior lower border on the right side, a circular breathing pore which 
opens into a respiratory chamber beneath. This is lined with a richly 
vascular epithelium subserving the function of a respiratory organ. Just 
behind the right eye-stalk is the opening of the genital organs, thru which 
eggs are extruded. Slugs of this group are hermaphroditic, both male and 
female genital organs being present in a single individual. 
ANCIENT SUPERSTITIONS CONCERNING SLUGS 
Slugs have been known in Europe for many years, and the older writings 
in regard to them contain many interesting notes. They have been used 
as food in Europe, and it is said that as late as 1863 they were prescribed 
by French physicians, to be taken in the form of a sirup. A slug distillate 
was considered good for the complexion (Kingsley, 1885). A plaster of 
slugs with the heads removed, bound on the forehead, was believed to 
cure a headache, and slugs eaten alive in milk were thought to cure con- 
sumption (Rogers, 1908). 
As slugs always appear after a rain, they were believed by English 
farmers in the eighteenth century to come from heaven in a rain cloud 
(Theobald, 1895). Since toads gather in infested fields to feed on the 
slugs, it used to happen that gardeners and farmers of a hundred years 
ago, finding that their plants had been destroyed during the night, would 
blame and kill the toads, while the real culprit was concealed in a safe 
retreat under ground (Ritzema Bos, 1890). Later, the value of toads as 
enemies of the slugs was appreciated and three francs a dozen was paid for 
them (Guénaux, 1904). Years ago the small shell of the slugs was 
regarded as an amulet, which, worn on a string around the neck, was 
believed to protect the wearer from harm. When the slugs suddenly 
appeared in large numbers in the gardens of European countries, it was 
customary to invoke the power of the Church against them, in the hope 
that they might be thus removed (Kingsley, 1885); and Taylor (1907) 
states that the Ritual of Paris, A. D. 1712, contains definite exorcisms for 
this purpose. 
PECULIAR HABITS OF SLUGS 
Some slugs are said to have a partiality for moist newspaper, dead fish, 
earthworms, dead clams, dead slugs, meal, flour, cream, butter, Pears’ 
soap, sponge cake, and book bindings, as food (Cooke, 1895). They 
have been known to eat out the corks of wine bottles, to crawl into 
nearly empty beer bottles and bathe themselves in the contents, and even 
to attach their small mouths to the dripping faucets of containers of 
