Darwin wanted to know if land snails could have been brought to islands by
the sea. So he did experiments with land snails to determine how long they
could survive immersion in sea water. I just searched the text file of the
Origin of Species, 1859 edition
(http://www.thalasson.com/gtn/gtnletD.htm#letD) for Helix & found H.
pomatia on p. 397, where Darwin talks about the results of his experiments.

Aydin Orstan
home.earthlink.net/~aydinslibrary


On Tue, 17 Feb 2004 12:59:03 +0100, M. J. Faber <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

>Hello ConchLers,
>
>with all the recent messages on Charles Darwin's birthday, and on the
>extinction of mollusks, I now wonder how many copies of the1st printing of
>Darwin's "On the origin of species" still survive today. It is common
>knowledge that 1.250 copies were printed, and an often repeated story is
>that the book sold out on the very first day. But where are all these
copies
>now (a single copy may be worth more than 100,000 US$!). Anyone any idea?
>Another, more shell related question about the Origin: Darwin did not
bother
>much about mollusks (he liked cirripeds better - must have been mad), but
>are mollusks mentioned anywhere in the book?
>
>Marien
>www.mollus.nl