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THE EDUCABILITY OF A SNAIL 
T has been well established that a common 
garden-snail can find its way home over difficult 
country from a distance of six yards or more. 
Of one that habitually spent the day in a hole in 
a garden wall, about four feet from the ground, 
it is recorded that for months it utilized as a noc- 
turnal. ladder a piece of wood sloping from a bed 
of herbs to near the hole. Darwin mentions in 
The Descent of Man the case of two Roman snails, 
one sickly and the other vigorous, which were 
placed in an ill-provided garden. The vigorous one 
went over the wall into the next garden, where 
food was abundant. It was absent for twenty-four 
hours, but when suspicion was growing strong that 
it had deserted its companion, it returned, and after 
a short time both disappeared over the wall. That 
the explorer was able to tell the invalid of the 
El Dorado over the steep mountains is very im- 
probable, but the return to the starting-point is 
quite in line with other observations. It is likely 
enough that the scent of the slimy trail may assist 
in the way-finding, though it does not seem certain 
where the sense of smell has its seat in the common 
snail. But apart from evidence of “homing” 
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