Evening Republican, Volume 16, Number 205, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 August 1912 — Lives Without Air. [ARTICLE]

Lives Without Air.

While the snail has lungs, heart and a general circulation and is In every respect an air breathing creature, it can nevertheless exist indefinitely without inhaling the least breath of air, the element that Is usually considered the essential to existence In all creatures supplied with lungs. “To all organized creatures,” said Leppert, “the removal of oxygen, water, nourishment and heat causes death to ensue.” When that statement was made Leppert did not appear to consider the snail as one among the great host of “organized beings;” for experiments by Spallanzani have proved that any or all the usual life conditions can be removed In the case of the snail without terminating Its existence or In any vay impairing its function* The common snail retreata into his abeli on tfib approach of frosty weather, and the opening or mouth of its whell is hermetically sealed by a secretion which is of a silky texture and aleditttely Impervious to air and waiter. In this condition it Is plain that it is deprived of three of the four elements of life mentioned above — air, water and nourishment.—Harper’s Weekly.