VARIOUS MINOR USES. 
429 
allowed to drop, is recommended by the village dames of Sussex as 
a specific for coughs and colds. 
Figuier has extracted from Helices an odorous and sulphurous 
animal oil, which he has named Helicine, by means of which Dr. 
Lemare is stated to have radically cured cases of consumption. 
In Martin Lister’s time snails, and particularly Helir pomatia, had 
long been considered as restorative in hectic fever cases. 
In modem times preparations from snails have been employed by 
qualified medical men for the treatment of many disorders, Mr. W. G. 
Binney recording that in 1863 the Syrup of Snails was prescribed to 
ailing members of his family by two regular French physicians in Paris. 
A liniment of great local repute, for the relief or cure of Lumbago, 
Rheumatism, Bruises, Sprains, etc., etc., was formerly prepared by the 
late Mr. John Crowther, of Pontefi’act, by placing a number of Helix 
nspei’sa within a large tin vessel, upon a warm boiler, the dark-brown 
oily matter derived from their desiccation when mixed with ammonia 
being ready for use. 
In Veterinary medicine, Puton records that the husbandmen of the 
Vosges used the calcined and powdered shells of Helices to destroy 
the films that form on the eyes of domestic animals. 
The Minor Uses of the mollusca are very various and often very 
localized, the shells of mollusks are said to have been used as 
Drinking Vessels by the Ancient Britons, and to have been the only 
ones generally possessed by them ; the Highlanders, in the more 
secluded districts, are said even yet to use them for the same purpose. 
As Cream Skimmers, the thin-edged valves of A and Unio 
have frequently been used in many country districts, and those of 
Unio margaritifer are, or were recently, used in the Isle of ]\Ian as 
scoops and as porridge spoons; while the shells of Helix pomatia 
are used in France among Peach and Apple trees as traps for ear- 
wigs, etc. 
As Colour receptacles, the valves of Unio pictorum were formerly 
employed by Flemish painters and, though they are now quite obsolete 
for this purpose, they may still be occasionally obtained containing a 
preparation of gold and silver for illuminating, though even for this 
purpose the shells of Mytilus edulis seem now more in vogue. 
For Button-making and other purposes, the nacreous or mother-o’- 
pearl lining of the Lhiiones has been used commercially, and when 
finely pulverized it makes a very excellent polishing powder for hard 
