The diamond drill. (Crystal Falls, Iron County, Mich.) 1887-1996, 1894-09-01
EXPERIMENTS ON SNAIL 5.
They VIII Live Under Conditions Which
Would Appear Ia Ba Fatal.


They win Live Under Conditions Which
Would Appear tn Ba Fatal.
Spallanzani has proved that the com.
mon snail may be deprived of any OF
the four conditions of life and yet sur.
vive. IL simply retires within it's she'll
and goes 20 sleep. Spallanzani cut
small openings in the shells OF thu
snails. Through these he could clearly
see the functions OF life i'm operation.
As the temperature gradually dimin-
ished these operations became weaker
and weaker; al nanght degrees all move
ments ceased, and the snail appeared 20
be dead. AS soon as the temperature
was raised movements indicative of life
began again; 10y raising the tempera-
ture Go normal height the snail re-
gained its normal powers. Thus the
eNperimenter quickened and reduced
life at his pleasure.
To prove that the absence Of heat
suspends the snail's animation through
the winter season, Spallanzam made
the following experiments: When the
snail retired within its shell IL closed
IL Dramatically and both shell and
orperculum were impenetrable Go air.
The scientist bored small hole in tho
operculum and fastened fine glass
tube in It, excluding the possibility of
air getting in. lie then placed the
snail under water and forced air into
the shell through the tube II there
were any fine openings in the shell or
the operculum. or ii the snail before
entering had filed the shell with air.
the air forced into it hy means OF tho
tube would cause air bubbles to be
visible through the she'll, but Spal-
lanzani could not detect any. lie made
another experiment TO test this
lie bored hole in the operculm Of
another snail, and again fitted aq air.
tight glass tube into IL and filed the
tube with quicksilver. lie then turned
tube and snail upside down and dipped
the end Of the tube into q cup filled
with quicksilver. III the snail's shell
was absolutely without air the tube
would show il, for it would act like a
barometer. Spalanzani found that
! there was no air inside of the she'll
During the winter he placed several
\ "snail barometersn side by side with
4 ordinary baromctcrs for comparison.
7 The snail baromcters" acted exactly
I as the regular barometers
4 Spalanzani, however, went further.
1 II was possible, he Thought. that tho
/ snail before shutting himselfup, might
have laid in supply OF air. lie there
I fore extended his experiments TO many
| specimens, making examinations just
after the snail had retired, in the midi
die Of winter and in the spring, and
proved TO his satisfaction that the snail
had not brcathed during the winter. lle
also kept number of snails dur
inc the winter on the bottoms Of glass
iarf filed with water, oil and quick
silver, proving conclusively that they
had no air supply during that time.
. To prove that 10 is want ~ oxygen
that puts snails 20 sleep, he set them in
vessel filled with hydrogen. For
nbout ten minutes the interior organs
acted rs usual, breathing the hydrogen,
but they suddenly ceased, and the snail
closed the shell by the operculum and
Law still. AZ the end Of five hours
Spauanzani forced little atmospheric
air into the lungs Of the snail, and al
most Immediately the heart began 70
act and the blood 10 circulate, When
he stopped TO supply the mir the opera
tions of life also stopped. The snail
remained immobilc when carbonic acid
gas or hydrogen was forced in. IL Is.
consequently, the oxygen which sets
the organism in motion. Copenhagen
Naturcn Of Mcnncslyet.