Snails Tale or is that tail?

Today's tale is about snails. You may recall that we (my husband and I) went to Scotland earlier in the summer and I said that I would give details later. Well we went to Paisley, Scotland so that my husband could attend a law conference. You may, quite understandably, be wondering what that might have to do with snails. Well I'll share some information on a famous case in English common law about a snail.

First though, what is a snail?

A "Snail is a common name which is applied to most of the members of the molluscan class Gastropoda that have coiled shells in the adult stage. When the word is used in its most general sense, it includes sea snails, land snails and freshwater snails. The word snail without any qualifier is however more often applied to land snails than to those from the sea or freshwater. Snail-like animals that naturally lack a shell, or have only an internal shell, are often called slugs, and land species that have only a very small shell (that they cannot retract into) are called semislugs." (Wikipedia)

 

I probably don't have to tell you that snails don't move very fast and thus are sometimes used as a symbol for laziness.

"In Christian culture, it has been used as a symbol of the deadly sin of sloth. Psalms 58:8 uses snail slime as a metaphorical punishment."

"Snails were widely noted and used in divination. The Greek poet Hesiod wrote that snails signified the time to harvest by climbing the stalks, while the Aztec moon god Tecciztecatl bore a snail shell on his back. This symbolised rebirth; the snail's penchant for appearing and disappearing was analogised with the moon.^"

"In contemporary speech, the expression "a snail's pace" is often used to describe a slow, inefficient process. The phrase "snail mail" is used to mean regular postal service delivery of paper messages as opposed to the delivery of email, which can be virtually instantaneous."
 

Add to that, they are  hated by gardeners because they seem to "graze" on the fresh new shoots of our favorite plants, and are much maligned indeed.

Here is my husbands synopsis of the famous case celebrated and discussed at the Paisley Snail Conference:

 

In August 1928 May Donoghue went by tram from Glasgow to the small town of Paisley with a friend.  In Paisley they went to the Wellmeadow Café where her friend treated her to a ginger beer float.  Mr. Minghella, the proprietor, brought a glass with ice cream and poured some ginger beer from an opaque bottle into the glass at the table.  When May poured some more ginger beer into the glass she claimed that the decomposed remains of a snail appeared.  In those days May would have had no recourse – her friend had treated her, Mr. Minghella just poured the ginger beer out of the bottle which he had purchased from Mr. Stevenson’s soft drinks company and May had not bought the soft drink from Mr. Stevenson so she had no contract with either of them.  However a law suit was commenced and a motion by Mr. Stevenson’s lawyers to strike out the claim was dismissed but the Court of Session (Scotland’s appeal court) allowed the appeal and dismissed the claim.  May’s lawyers appealed to the House of Lords, at that time the United Kingdom’s highest court.  In May 1932 Lord Atkin allowed the appeal, supported by 2 of the other 4 judges.  He said that when you manufactured a product you had to take reasonable care not to injure your neighbour, who in law was anyone you could reasonably foresee might be injured if you were negligent. (Donoghue vs Stevenson)

This simple case was the beginning of a major change in the law in the Commonwealth as the courts finally caught up with the reality that many products were now manufactured and shipped across a country (in trains) and the users of the product dealt with intermediaries, not the manufacturer.  The House of Lords’ decision opened up the whole area of product liability and other areas of liability such as negligence of professionals.  While there have been many important court decisions, this case probably had the most wide reaching and long lasting effect of any case in the Commonwealth.

Interestingly the case never went to trial so it was never proved that there had been a snail in the bottle.  Mr. Stevenson died and his executor settled the case with Ms. Donoghue.

The conference in Paisley was held to celebrate the 80^th anniversary of the House of Lords’ decision.  Many interesting papers were presented dealing with the development of the law since the decision.

 

 

This way ..........

So with that in mind, how could a snail have gotten into a bottle of ginger beer. As an aside my husband tells me that the term "ginger" is used as a generic word for a soft drink or soda in Scotland.

So when I was in Province in the summer I took "a few" pictures of snails which seemed quite active early in the day.

Since the snails were quite cooperative I decide to try to reenact the alleged event so bear with me as the snail makes his way from the path and over the gravel ...

... to the bottle....

Well there seems to be a problem here, looks like a tight fit or .............

maybe not ......

 

Well they have a saying that in Scotland, the snails are so poor they can't afford houses! Maybe that explains it, but if they don't have houses then according to the previous description they are technically slugs not snails ... and that just doesn't have the same ring to it!

 

I hope you have enjoyed this tale about a very famous snail case. Oh, by the way, no snails were harmed in photographing this reenactment.

 

This week for a change of pace I painted something light and silly. A watercolour again, but this time of a frog, perhaps a frog prince, perhaps a prince frog. I call it "Who did you expect?"

 

 

 

Well thanks for hanging in through this moving tale. Happy Whimsy Wednesday.

 

Until next time ..........

 

 

 

 

Summer Leftovers?

Yes, is almost the end of summer, and I have some leftovers for you. Not to worry I am not talking about stale potato salad, slightly composted greens and dried out chicken, but instead some pictures from the summer that I have not yet shared with you.

This gull is giving me the "Aren't you supposed to be back at work with everyone else?" look; the gulls did not seem to miss the people and umbrellas, but they may be missing the handouts and food leftovers.

I had a discussion recently with some friends about the origins of the term Indian Summer.  I have always thought that the term Indian Summer refers summer like conditions lasting through September and into October but since I didn't know for sure what it meant I thought it timely to do a bit of research.

Flowers into seeds:

According to Wikipedia: "The expression 'Indian summer' has been used for more than two centuries. The earliest known use was by French-American writer John Hector St. John de Crevecoeur in rural New York in 1778: "Then a severe frost succeeds which prepares it to receive the voluminous coat of snow which is soon to follow; though it is often preceded by a short interval of smoke and mildness, called the Indian Summer."

Here are some theories about its etymology (from Wikipedia):

• "In Colonial New England and New York, Indian Summer referred only to a January thaw, when American Indian raiding parties could be expected in the western and northern areas: the ground had briefly lost its snow cover so tracking the Native American raiders back to their winter camps was much more difficult for the Colonials. " 

• "In The Americans: The Colonial Experience, Daniel J. Boorstin speculates that the term originated from raids on European colonies by American Indian war parties; these raids usually ended in late autumn (due to snow covered ground), hence summer-like weather in the late fall and mid winter was an Indian Summer, a time raiding parties could be expected. "

• "It may be so named because this was the traditional period during which early American Indians harvested their crops of squash and corn." 

I have usually heard the term Indian Summer used when summer weather lasts well past the fall equinox (third week in September), not necessarily preceded by a period of cold weather. It is probably too soon to say for sure but I have heard predictions of an Indian Summer for this year; fingers crossed that it happens.

A colourful array of summer produce (tomatoes, eggplants and artichokes):

The summer's progression of colourful flowers: Lilies, sweet peas, lobelia, vicars mead, fuchsia, roses, day lilies, rhododendrons, echinacea, laitris and euphorbia.

 

 

 

 

A nest, now vacated, that a neighbour found and gave me:

 

And a few bunnies:

This one had a close look at me, then realizing I was not a threat started rolling around on the ground, occasionally stopping to have a look at me.

I took a short video of him doing a bit of cleanup following a roll in the dirt:

This is one of the many baby bunnies from early in the summer:

 

Here is a whole family, and then their mother watching over them:

One last video taken from a dock on one of the gulf islands this summer:

 

 

I hope you have enjoyed this "leftover" version of summer photographs.

"Leftovers in their less visible form are called memories. Stored in the refrigerator of the mind and the cupboard of the heart." Thomas Fuller
 

 

I have just finished a painting of a large wooden mask that I saw at an indoor garden. It is a watercolour that I have called "Sun Washed":

Thank you for dropping by, hope you enjoyed your visit and Happy Whimsy Wednesday.

Until next week ...............