THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 
221 
METALLIC GUARD AGAINST SLUGS. 
BY A CORRESPONDENT. 
T was the circumstance of having had two seedling crops 
of a favourite flower, the ranunculus, destroyed by those 
wholesale devourers (slugs), that first stimulated me to 
seek for some effectual means of defence, and I may 
now exclaim “ Eureka ! ” — -I’ve hit it — in the discovery 
which I am about to propagate. It is at once elegant, scientific, 
cheap, effectual, and applicable to all cases, and will, I doubt not, 
be considered a valuable boon to florists and gardeners. It is the 
application of galvanism ! — that power so mighty in the hands of the 
chemist, that by its agency he can convert soda and potash into solid 
metals, and consume the hardest metals themselves as a shred of 
paper in the flame of a candle. 
This vast chemical power is generated by the simple process of 
placing in contact with each other numerous plates of zinc and 
copper with a piece of moistened cloth between the several pairs. 
By multiplying and increasing their efficacy (as in the galvanic 
trough), a power so great may be produced, as to destroy the life of 
an animal with the rapidity of lightning, and that by the merest 
touch. 
It is by thus exciting this chemical power, in its simplest and 
fullest form indeed, on which depends the efficacy of the galvanic 
protector about to be described. 
If a snail or slug be placed on a plate of zinc, to which a narrow 
plate or slip of copper is fixed, it creeps unmolested on its surface ; 
but as soon as it touches the copper it receives a galvanic shock (its 
moist soft body acting as the moistened cloth above mentioned, and 
thus forming the galvanic circle complete), and immediately recoils, 
twisting itself back, and rarely venturing a second time to touch 
the copper to receive another shock. 
This (to me) amusing experiment I have tried again and again, 
and, of course, always with the same results. To protect a seedling 
crop, then, or border, in frame, I have zinc plates of two or three 
feet in length, and four or five inches in breadth, with a strip of 
copper plate one inch broad, placed on the upper part, and secured 
close with two or three rivets. 
These plates are fixed in the ground to the depth of a couple of 
inches. As just explained, the snail creeps up the zinc, but receives 
a galvanic shock as soon as its horns or head touch the copper, 
causing it to recoil and turn back : an insurmountable fence can 
thus, in a moment, be formed around whatever we wish to save from 
these marauders ; and if made in a circular form, or in short lengths, 
the plates may be contrived to meet every possible exigency. I 
have myself used this protector in all cases with complete success, 
and a scientific gentleman of this place, to whom I acknowledge 
myself indebted for the suggestion of the principle, last year saved 
his dahlias (which on other occasions had always been nearly all 
