A colleague of mine at King’s College tells me that the country people at Ponteland, near Morpeth, habitually collect _Limax agrestis_ and boil it in milk as a prophylactic against consumption. He has himself frequently devoured them alive, but they must be swallowed, not scrunched with the teeth, or they taste somewhat bitter. Snails have occasionally fallen, with other noxious creatures, under the ban of the Church. In a prayer of the holy martyr Trypho of Lampsacus (about 10th cent. A.D.) there is a form of exorcism given which may be used as occasion requires. It runs as follows: “O ye Caterpillars, Worms, Beetles, Locusts, Grasshoppers, Woolly-Bears, Wireworms, Longlegs, Ants, Lice, Bugs, Skippers, Cankerworms, Palmerworms, _Snails_, Earwigs, and all other creatures that cling to and wither the fruit of the grape and all other herbs, I charge you by the many-eyed Cherubim, and by the six-winged Seraphim, which fly round the throne, and by the holy Angels and all the Powers, etc. etc., hurt not the vines nor the land nor the fruit of the trees nor the vegetables of ---- the servant of the Lord, but depart into the wild mountains, into the unfruitful woods, in which God hath given you your daily food.” =Prices given for Shells.=--Very high prices have occasionally been given for individual specimens, particularly about thirty or forty years ago, when the mania for collecting was at its height. In those days certain families, such as the Volutidae, Conidae, and Cypraeidae, were the especial objects of a collector’s ardour, and he spared no expense to make his set of the favourite genus as complete as possible. Thus at Stevens’ auction-rooms in Covent Garden, on 21st July 1854, one specimen of _Conus cedo nulli_ fetched £9: 10s., and another £16, a _C. omaicus_ 16 guineas, _C. victor_ £10, and _C. gloria maris_, the greatest prize of all, £43: 1s. At the Vernède sale, on 14th Dec. 1859 two _Conus omaicus_ fetched £15 and £22, and a _C. gloria maris_ £34. At the great Dennison sale, in April 1865, the _Conidae_ fetched extravagant prices, six specimens averaging over £20 apiece. _Conus cedo nulli_ went for £18 and £22, _C. omaicus_ for £12, _C. malaccanus_ for 10 guineas (this and one of the _cedo nulli_ being the actual specimens figured in Reeve’s _Conchologia Iconica_), _C. cervus_ for £19 and _C. gloria maris_ for £42. On 9th May 1866 a _Cypraea Broderipii_ was sold at Stevens’ auction-rooms for £13, and at the Dennison sale a _Cypraea princeps_ fetched £40, and _C. guttata_ £42. The _Volutidae_, although not quite touching these prices, have yet done fairly well. Mr. Dennison’s _Voluta fusiformis_ sold for £6: 15s., _V. papillaris_ for £5, _V. cymbiola_ for £5: 15s., _V. reticulata_ for eight guineas, and two specimens of the rarest of all Volutas, _V. festiva_, for £14 and £16, both being figured in the _Conchologia_. At the same sale, two unique specimens of _Oniscia Dennisoni_ fetched £17