USES — MEDICINAL. 
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when roasted and dipjied in oil or scattered over with bread crumbs 
and scalloped. TJnio marcjaritifer was formerly considered as one of 
the daintiest of foods, and the Anodontiv are considered edible in 
many places abroad and are also eaten by the peasantry around 
Lough Schur, Leitrim. 
As Medicine, the Ancients considered the slugs and certain snails 
to possess extraordinary virtues and attributed sovereign powers to 
them in the treatment of various disorders. According to the then 
current belief there was scarcely an ailment to which men or domestic 
animals were liable which could not be cured by the proper use of 
preparations of these animals. This exaggerated estimate of the 
efficacy of these objects has been transmitted through many centuries, 
and in some secluded and unsophisticated districts the belief in the 
manifold virtues of these or similar remedies still exist. 
The testaceous species, however, never appear to have attained the 
celebrity in medicine acquired by the naked mollusks, but were more 
used as articles of food, although in common with them, they have had, 
even in comparatively modern times, a widely extended use, and were 
considered a cure for Ague, Scrofula, Dropsy, Pleurisy, Fevers, 
Asthma, Consumption and Pulmonary complaints generally, either 
consumed living or prepared in a variety of ways, which were thought 
to best conserve their efficacy. 
Avion ater, Limax maximiis, L.flavus, Helix aspersa, H.nemoralis, 
H. hortensis and H. arbustorum all at one time occupied places in the 
Materia Medica or were the base of pharmaceutical preparations, and 
even pearls long maintained a great medicinal reputation, a celebrity 
due to the testimony of the Arabian physicians. 
The Limacelle or internal shell of the Slug was held in high repute 
as an exceptionally powerful remedial agent for toothache, the pains 
being said to instantly cease when the little calcareous grains formed 
in Avion are placed in the hollow tooth. 
For dysentery, it was recommended that five slugs (preferably 
African ones) be burned and mixed with the weight of a demi-denier 
of Acacia, and two-spoonsful of this mixture to be taken in Myrtle 
or other thick wine, with an equal quantity of warm-water, or in 
severe cases to be administered as a clyster. 
For healing ulcers, the ashes of Dormice, Wild Rats, Earthworms 
and Slugs mixed with oil was considered very efficacious. The ashes 
of burnt slugs were also believed to be especially powerful in healing 
