[...] I believe the really medicinal properties of snails, especially as remedies for consumption, have never been fully appraised, though rumour has it that a well-known popular "cure" for pulmonary complaints owes much of its curative worth to the snails which so largely enter into its composition. In connection with this, a passage in the "Autobiography and Correspondence" of Mrs Mary Delany, a notable but now forgotten figure in the latter half of the 18th century, contains a curious reference to the value of snails in chest affections.
"Does Mary cough in the night," she writes, alluding to an invalid friend, "two or three snails boiled in her barley water or tea water might be of great service to her; taken in time they have done wonderful cures." And the writer goes on to add that "they give no manner of taste," and recommends that six or eight snails be "boiled in a quart of water, strained off, and put into a bottle," so that a spoonful or two of the decoction may be added to every liquid taken by the invalid. She insists, however, on this infusion of snails being fresh made every two or three days, "otherwise they grow too thick." So much for our remedies in those "old tea cup times"! Who knows but what we may not come back to these antique methods again, with the present craze for "cures." [...]
Daily News (London), 15th March 1906.
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