594 
SNAIL. 
appear still more extraordinary than it is, it will be 
necessary to state exactly how this was done. The 
person who relates the circumstance in the Annual 
Register, collected the snails in order to decorate a 
grotto ; and, being of a merciful disposition, was 
resolved to put them to death at once, instead of 
sticking them up alive against the wall. To accom- 
plish her purpose (for the author of this account was 
a lady), she procured a large china bason, and put- 
ting a handful or two of snails into it, filled the vessel 
with water from a boiling tea-kettle. After a short 
time this water was poured off ; and to prevent the 
possibility of returning animation, the bason was 
again filled in the same manner, and left to stand 
till the morning ; when, to the very great astonish- 
ment of the lady, she found her snails crawling 
about, some on the edge of the bason, some tum- 
bling over, some on the table, and one or two ac- 
tually eating the paste that was to stick them on ! 
It appears that the lady was perfectly shocked ; she 
cried, picked up every snail carefully, carried them 
into a field beyond the garden, and gave them all 
their liberty. 
Among the Abbe Spallanzani’s Tracts on animal 
reproduction, we find some curious though cruel 
experiments relative to the common snail, which 
possesses the power of renewing certain parts of its 
body, that may have been separated either by acci- 
dent or design. The Abbe first began by cutting 
off one of the animal’s horns, which was seen to bud 
again in about twenty-five days, and continued to 
