Evening Republican, Volume 14, Number 52, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 March 1910 — The Peculiar Snail. [ARTICLE]

The Peculiar Snail.

The Common snail has lungs, heart and a general circulation, and is in every respect an air breathing creature. This notwithstanding, he can live on indefinitely without inhaling the least atom of air, that which is usually considered the essential to existence in ail creatures supplied with lungs. Leppert says: “To all organized creatures the removal of oxygen, wate< nourishment and heat causes death to ensue.” When that statement was made he did not appear to consider the

snail as one among the great host of "organized beings,” for the experiments made by Prof. Spallanzani prove that any or all the usual life conditions can be removed in its case without terminating its existence or in any way Impairing its functions. It is a fact well known that the common land snail retreats into his shell on the approach of frosty weather in the-fall and that the opening or mouth of the shell is hermetically sealed by a secretion which is of a silky texture and absolutely impervious to air and water. In this condition it is plain that he is deprived of three out of four elements of life mentioned by Leppert—viz., air, water and nourishment. ?.