NEW YORK SHELL CLUB NOTES No. 241 April 1978 Page 3 
I ee remarried ASIEN Paes 
of a hurricane, Displaying 
they recalled experiences 
in Puerto Rico; Ravenna 
Italy; France, where they found South Pacifie shells that had come. 
in as ship's ballast, and had been spread as paving in a courtyard; 
a food item in Malaga, 
have sampled both. 
Milton Werner, Recording Secretary 
SS 
SNAILS AND CHINA 
Some time ago, in NOTES 214:6, 21536, we commented on an absurd re- 
port regarding the struggle in China to eliminate the scourge of 
schistosomiasis from the land.* Since snails are the vectors of 
the disease trypanosome, Mao Tse-Ting raised the slogan: "Kill All 
Snails!" This regardless of the fact that the vast majority of 
snails have nothing at all to do with the disease. The call was to 
hate snails and kill them wherever possible. 
Now we read in a report in the magazine section of the Sunday New 
York Times (12/4/77) that the feud against the inoffensive mollusks 
had another aspect. Harrison Salisbury, author of the article, 
tells the story: 
"In 1973 a technical mission visited the United States. An American 
factory gave them cornucopia-shaped ashtrays as souvenirs. When the 
technicians returned to China the presents were turned in to the 
Foreign Office and came into the hands of Chiang Ching, Mao's widow 
and the leader of the dreadful 'Gang of Four' and her supporters. 
In February, 1974, she raised the question of the ashtrays in a for- 
mal meeting of the Communist Party Politbureau. She said they were 
actually in the shape of snails and were a deliberate insult, imply- 
ing that China was making only snail's progress in the world. She 
demanded that the Chinese Liason Office in Washington be ordered to 
raise formal protest. with the U. S. Government... . (Later Chiang 
Chin) ordered a novelette written, called 'A Report Exposing Contra- 
dictions.' It revolved around a 'Capitalist-roader'. . - who goes 
abroad and brings back as a souvenir a snail.ashtray. Rei is rebuked 
by a heroine reminiscent of Miss Chiang who explodes: You bring 
back a snail ashtray. You yourself have a snail on your back. You 
Just go along at a snail's pace.'" 
We would the cornucopia-shaped ashtrays arrived in China 
about the time Psi Chairman Mao declared war to the hilt on all 
Snails, thus giving his then wife the idea to turn the mittapte hts 
an attack on her enemies -- the very enemies who have now depose 
eye i 
in disgrace. Morris K. Jacobson 
i i histoso- 
* Mass Control of Oncomelania hupensis, Snail Vector for Se n 
Mlasis in the People's Repu lic of China; by Lois Wong Chi of Cali 
fornia State College. Veliger, July 1, 1975, 18(1): 95-98. 
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