The Snail Telegraph

I'm not sure what's going on, but my Internet access in general seems to be degraded this morning, probably due to rain in the wires -- I hope this will post, as a lot of pages are showing up either with their images missing, their CSS absent, or simply blank ("Error: no document source").

Here at any rate is one of the more bizarre discoveries I made while researching beliefs in Animal Magnetism circa 1840-50: the Snail Telegraph.

It has lately been stated, by M. Allix, on the authority of M. Benoit in Paris, and of another discoverer, (also, I believe, a Frenchman, who is now in America,) both of whom, during the last ten years, have been employed in working out the discovery, which they had severally and independently made, although they are now associated to work it out, that this magnetic sympathy is remarkably developed in snails; that these animals, after having once been in communication or in contact, continue ever after to sympathise, no matter at what distance they may be. And it has been proposed to found, on this fact, a mode of communication between the most distant places. ( Read more... )