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Snails

IN Pliny's day the Snail (Limax) was given, when beaten up in warm water, for coughs. It has been used in medicine from very old times. The Romans were very partial to (Apple) Snails, which they fattened in special cochlearia, feeding them with bran soaked in wine until they attained quite large dimensions. Charles the Fifth of Spain died of indigestion brought on by eating immoderately of Snails. In this country the early mediciners likewise prescribed Snails. In the Arcana Fairfaxiana it stands ordered: "For one that cannot make water, take Shell Snayles, and take out the Snayle; wash the shells very cleane, drye them, and beate them into powder; then take ye powder, and drinke it in white wine, or els in thyn broth." Halliwell quotes a still older recipe about slugs: "Take the rede Snyle that crepis houseles, and stepe it in water, and geder (gather) the fatte that comes of thame." Mrs. Delaney, again (in 1758), advised that "Two or three Snails should be boiled in the barley-water which Mary takes, who coughs at night; she must know nothing of it; they give no manner of taste." Apple Snails (Helix pomatia) such as are cultivated on the Continent for the table, and for medicinal purposes, are found but seldom in England, and only where Roman remains still endure. The first importation of Snails into England has been attributed to Sir Kenelm Digby (1645) for his wife. Also the Apple Snail was brought to the South Downs of Surrey, and Sussex, as well as to Box Hill, in the sixteenth century, by one of the Earls of Arundel for his Countess, who dressed, and ate them to promote the cure of consumption, from which she suffered. Paris alone at the present time uses up about thirty-eight millions of Snails yearly. They did not come really into French vogue until the return of Louis the Eighteenth (in 1814), on which occasion the Bishop of Autun entertained the Emperor Alexander of Russia. This popular host, who was a famous gastronome, had in his service a most accomplished cook, the best in Paris at that time; they put their heads together, and hit upon Snails as the most suitable novelty for presenting to the Imperial guest. Together with this dish, which was handed round, there appeared on the card, under the heading "Escargots à la Bourgignonne," a description of the delicious seasoning with which each shell was filled up. The same dish was straightway adopted in Paris for the " Dejeuner à la fourchette." Within the last year spurious Snails, made from calves' liver (boiled), have been found in Paris as artificially put upon the market in place of the Helix pomatia, or edible Snail; they are, of course, much to be reprobated. In 1854 M. de la Marr, of Paris, set forth the virtues of helicin as a glutinous extract obtained from Snails, and which had long been given in broth as a successful domestic remedy for pulmonary phthisis. Against consumptive disease of the lungs the Snails are not only eaten, but also crushed in their shells, and rubbed over the back, and chest, the Snail juice being deemed by some superior even to cod-liver oil. Gipsies are great Snail-eaters, but they first starve these gasteropods, which are given to devour poisonous plants, and must be rendered free from the same, for it is certain that Snails retain for a while the flavour, and odour of the vegetables on which they feed. According to a gipsy, the common English garden Snail (Helix aspera) is quite as good to eat as the Apple Snail, but there is "less of him." In gipsy language the Snail is a "bauri." Some think that those Snails are the best for eating which have lived through the winter. English Snails are preferred when first soaked in salted water, and then cooked, being pulled out of the shell with a pin, like winkles, to be eaten with pepper and vinegar. For consumptive persons they should be cooked in milk. Collecting Snails is carried on in the French provinces all day long, by men, women, and children, who with iron hooks search for them at the foot of thorn hedges, and under ivy, and, in winter, about old walls. If lucky, a good searcher will gather from one thousand to fifteen hundred Snails. The large white gasteropod is in special demand about Paris, whilst the garden and wood Snails are in common use among poorer consumers throughout all parts of France. In Paris the Escargots (as Snails are called), being dried, are concocted into lozenges for a cough. To help weak eyes, in Hampshire Snails are made into a poultice with soaked bread-crusts. The glutinous constituent, " helicin," may be given in broths. Snails can be made into soup, or eaten a la huitre, with vinegar, and pepper, and salt. For soup, "first wash them, then put them into cold water quickly brought to the boil; remove the shells; add an equal part of wellflavoured vegetable stock, and directly it boils take out the Snails; thicken the soup with flour, butter, salt, and pepper, to taste; then add the yolk of an egg; boil up again; put back the Snails, and serve" (Tramps' Handbook). Again, a recipe of Dr. Walser for curing chronic catarrh orders to " take five garden Snails out of their shells, cut them up small, and put them into half a pint of veal broth in which a carrot has been boiled; cover up, and let it stew until the Snails fall to the bottom; strain through a sieve, and drink a teacupful daily. The broth will give ease against spasmodic coughing." As a curious old recipe for Syrrop of Snailes " : "Putte House Snailes in a baskett, putte fennel in the bottom, middle, and top of them; cover them very close; lett them stand twenty-four hours; wipe them very cleane with a coarse cloth; prick them with a bodkin, and stop their mouths with Lisbon sugar; putt them in a sieve with their mouths downwards, and sprinkle a little rosewater all over them. Let them stand till the sugar is dissolved, and the syrup drops clear in a dish; take it off for present use without boyling. For to keep, putt it on the fire, lett it just boyl, scum it very clean, take it off, and keep it till the next day, then bottle it." Dr. Yeo tells that "the edible Snail has been called 'the poor man's oyster.' " It may be eaten raw, with salt, pepper, and vinegar. Spenser, in his day, suggested this. 66 Sweet syrups are still made from Apple Snails for colds, and sore throats, because of the emollient mucilage which they furnish with their special constituents, helicin, and limacin. Another old recipe, "excellent for one that is in a consumption," ran as follows: "Take Garden Snails, break their houses, and remove them whole; do not wash them, but put them into the strokings of milk, and set them on the fire together till they be ready to boyl, but let it not boyl; then strain it, and drink it warm, a draught each morning, and at four o'clock in the afternoon, and at night last." Quantities of Garden Snails are packed in old cases, and sent to America as delicacies. The glass men at Newcastle have a Snail feast once a year; they collect the Snails in the fields, and hedgerows, on the Sunday before this anniversary. Again, Francatelli, an eminently sensible chef, considerate for the cottager no less than for the lavish epicure, advises thus in his Modern Cook: "Take two, or three Garden Snails; add to these the hind-quarters only of two dozen stream-frogs previously skinned; bruise them together in a mortar, after which put them into a stewpan with a couple of turnips chopped small, a little salt, a quarter of an ounce of hay saffron, and three pints of spring-water. Stir these on the fire until the broth begins to boil, then skim it well, and set it by the side of the fire to simmer for half an hour, after which it should be strained by pressure through a tammy cloth into a basin for use. This broth, from its soothing qualities, will often successfully counteract the straining effects of a severe cough, and will alleviate more reliably than any other culinary preparation the sufferings of the consumptive." Birds'-nest Soup of the East, and Snail Soup of the West, are nearly allied to each other. The Ashantees, and other African tribes smoke Snails, and eat them as daily food all the year round. The London Gazette of March 23rd, 1739, tells that "Mrs. Joanna Stephens received from the Government of that time five thousand pounds for revealing the secret of her famous cure for stone in the bladder, and gravel. This consisted chiefly of egg-shells, and Snails, mixed with soap, honey, and herbs. It was given in decoctions, powders, and pills." Some do report that a calculus, or bladder stone, when taken out of the human body will, if wrapt in chamomile flowers, become speedily disintegrated, and will crumble away; so that for stone in the bladder, or kidneys, a strong infusion of chamomile flowers (virtually chamomile tea), if taken systematically every morning while fasting, and each night at bedtime, should be effectual to disperse it. Pepys, in his Diary (1663), wrote: April 1st, this being my feast in lieu of what I should have had a few days ago for my cutting for the stone, for which the Lord make me truly thankful! Very merry at, before, and after dinner; and the more for that my dinner was great, and most neatly dressed by our owne only mayde. We had a fricasee of rabbits, and chickens, a leg of mutton boyled, and three carps in a dish, a great dish of a side of lambe, a dish of roasted pigeons, a dish of four lobsters, three tarts, a lamprey pie (a most rare pie !), a dish of anchovies, good wine of several sorts, and all things mighty noble, and to my great content. Mrs. Wright, and I, and the rest of the women, with Roger Pepys."

Snail shells in powder are "lithontriptick, and good for the gravel; they cure clefts, or chops in the hands, lips, or fundament." Southey has told in The Doctor that any "chafing of the skin is instantly relieved by the slime of a Slug; put the Slug on the sore place, it heals you, and you need not hurt it; the part once slimed the Slug may be let go." The liver of Slugs yields sugar. As medicines both Snails, and Slugs are best eaten raw because of their coagulable albumin (like the white of egg) then remaining soft. Lister speaks of Snails seasoned with oil, pepper, and salt. Uric acid is produced in Slugs, and Snails, by an organ (the saccus calcareus) which is supposed to be the first vestige of a kidney; this uric acid has been turned (by Dr. Prout) into a purple colour of great beauty (murexide). Mr. Wood makes mention of a certain old dame who used to search in the hedges for Snails for converting thereby the milk she sold into cream; this she did by crushing the Snails through a piece of linen, whilst squeezing their juice into the milk. Lady Honeywood's "Snail-water" was well known in the seventeenth century. "Take a quart of shelled Snails, wash them in salt, and water, then scalld them in boyling water; then distill them in a quart of milk upon white sugar candy, and a branch of speremint." An old nursery distich of Dame Gammer Gurton's has quaintly related how :- "Four-and-twenty tailors Went to kill a snail, The best man among them Dur'st not touch its tail; She put out her horns, Like a little dun cow, Run, tailors, run, Or she'll kill you all now." "Sex quater exibant sartores impete magno Viribus ut junctis limax spumosa periret.

Nec fuit e numero qui auderet tangere caudam !

Cornua nam extrudens sævissima sicut in agris Vacca rubens et nigra, croci continente colore Illa suos hostes tremefecit. Abite fugaces Sartores! vos dira manent dispendia vitæ, Præsentem que viris intentant omnia mortem!"

In France a rustic application to scrofulous swellings is often used with success, which consists of garden parsley, and Snails, pounded together in a mortar to the consistence of an ointment. Some of this is spread on coarse linen, and applied fresh every day freely. The curious gourmet may taste a dish of Snails any day in London at a Restaurant (Gaudin's) in Greek Street, Soho, where the front window displays a legend "Escargots à la mode de Bourgoyne," to be eaten on the premises, or "a emporter, 10d. le douzaine"; basketfuls thereof are exhibited, the open mouths of the shells being stuffed with bread, and herbs. Some big, round fellows (selected) are at four shillings the dozen; they may be taken home, and cooked according to one's own ideas, perhaps " à la mode de Shepherd's Bush.” Many quarts of cooked Snails are sold every week to the labouring classes in Bristol. Defoe, writing in 1722, detcribed a cook's shop "where you may bespeak a dinner for from four, or five shillings to a guinea a head, or what sum you will; the menu of one of these guinea dinners containing among other curious items a 'ragout of fatted Snails,' also 'chicken two hours old. " Erasmus, in his colloquies, refers to the slow pace at which a Snail makes progress. "I see what haste you make, you are never the forwarder; you go a Snail's gallop." The Mock Turtle said with a deep sigh to Alice (in Wonderland), “Once I was a real Turtle"; then he sang very slowly, and sadly :-- 66 66 ""Will you walk a little faster?' said a Whiting to a Snail, 'There's a Porpoise close behind us, and he's treading on my tail : See, how eagerly the Lobsters, and the Turtles all advance! They are waiting on the shingle-will you come and join the dance? Will you? won't you? will you? won't you? will you join the dance? Will you? won't you? will you? won't you? won't you join the dance? ""You can really have no notion how delightful it will be When they take us up, and throw us, with the Lobsters, out to sea!' But the Snail replied, 'Too far, too far!' and gave a look askance- 'Said he thanked the Whiting kindly, but he would not join the dance: Would not, could not, would not, could not, would not join the dance; Would not, could not, would not, could not, could not join the dance .' "