Univalves. 33 



shell; it is also furnished with what we commonly 

 call horns, naturalists say tentacles, from the Latin 

 tento — trying, or essaying ; with these the creature, 

 as it were, feels its way, being extremely sensitive ; 

 they answer the purpose of organs both of sight 

 and touch ; put your finger slowly towards one of 

 them, and you will observe that, even before con- 

 tact, it begins to retract, or draw in, as though 

 sensible of the approach of some opposing body, as 

 it no doubt is. These horns of the Snail, then, are 

 its feelers— eyes to the blind, fingers to the finger- 

 less ; so God provides for his creatures all that may 

 be necessary for their existence, and compensates 

 for the deprivation of one sense or organ, by some 

 admirable contrivance which meets the necessities 

 of the case.* 



* It appears likely that tlie little knobs at the end of 

 the Snail's feelers, are, as some naturalists assert, in reality 

 eyes ; if so, we were wrong in calling the creature blind. 

 Yet is their position and construction so different from 

 organs of sight generally, that they serve rather to 

 strengthen than invalidate the above observations. The 

 number of the horns varies in different kinds of snails from 

 two to six, and some have none at all. These tentacles, 

 when present, are always situated above the mouth ; some 

 of them have the knobs at the base, others at the sides ; 

 and it has been conjectured that they may be organs of 

 smell, as well as of sight and touch. 



