The Russellville Democrat., 1881-11-03
snalls.


 The great vine snail has quite his tory, and it's lease of life should be long one. if that may be measured by the powers of endurance. In l774 the mem- bers of the Royal society in England could not be brought to believe an Irish collector, who ayerred th2t certain white snails that had been confined for fifteen years came out of their shells upon his sons putting them in hot water; but the possibility of the thing was proved in 1850, when, after four years somnolenee in the British museum, an Egyptian desert snail woke up, none the worse for its long rest and abstenence. It fed heartily on lettuce leaves, and lived for two years longer. Spallanzain asserted that he had often beheaded snails with out killing them, and in few months they were as lively as ever, having grown new heads in retirement.
 Snail-eatiug has been in vogue for many centuries. and was considered by the ancient Romans one of their table luxuries. In Pliny's time Barbary snails stood first in repute, those in Sicily ranking next; and it was the cus- tom to fatten them for the table by diet ing them on meal and new wine. In modern Rome fresh gathered snails are hawked from door to door by women, who boil them in their shells, stew them or fry them in oil. Snails are gathered off the vines by the peasantry in the wine district of France, and are sent up in cases and wicker baskets to Paris halls, where they are sold by auction, and are purchased by people who make it their business to prepare them for the restau- rants and charcuders They are killed by being placed in scalding water, and after being removed from their shells by the aid of a piece of wire, are thrown in to an immense copper and boiled for three quarters of an hour in a mixture composed of water, vinegar, salt and herbs. They are then replaced in their shells, the mouths of which are closed with butter and parsley, and are ready for sale. To prepare them for the table, it sutfices to place them in the fryingpan for few minutes with a small piece of butter, and without removing them from their shells. They are sold at the wine shops and charcutiers at thirty and forty centimes the dozen.
 A century ago some 100000 of snails were annually exported from Ulm in "cags" of 10000, fetching from twenty five to forty fiorins a "cag.n Tn the Tyrol youngsters of both sexes are em- ployed during the summer months col lecting snails as stock for small gardens small plats of land cleared of trees and covered with heaps of moss and pine twigs, separated from each other by meats, having gratings at their outlets to prevent any truants that may get into the water from being carried beyond bounds. The prisoners are supplied daily-with fresh grass and cabbage leaves until their appetites fail and they retire into the moss heaps for their winter sleep-the last one they will enjoy; for when spring comes they are routed out of their beds, packed in straw lined boxes, and sent on to market. In a favorable season one of these gardens will turn out 10000 snails. The con. sumption of them in South Tyrol mus; be great. Snails are often used, boiled in milk, for diseases of the lungs. and are sent to this country as a delicacy they are very indiscriminate in their ap. petite, and even devour the dead of their own kind. Snails delight in warm moist weather; in dry weather their chief time oi-actiyity is in the night, and they hide themselves by day: but after rain they come forth at any hour in quest of food At the approach Of winter, or in very dry weather, they close the month oi the shell with 8 membrane formed by the drying of the mOcus substance which they secrete, and become inactive and tOrnid