The pasilalinic-sympathetic compass, also referred to as the snail telegraph, was a device built to test the hypothesis that

snail A snail is a shelled gastropod. The name is most often applied to land snails, terrestrial molluscs, terrestrial pulmonate gastropod molluscs. However, the common name ''snail'' is also used for most of the members of the molluscan class Gas ...

s create a permanent

telepathic Telepathy () is the purported vicarious transmission of information from one person's mind to another's without using any known human sensory channels or physical interaction. The term was first coined in 1882 by the classical scholar Frederic ...

link when they mate. The device was developed by French

occult The occult () is a category of esoteric or supernatural beliefs and practices which generally fall outside the scope of organized religion and science, encompassing phenomena involving a 'hidden' or 'secret' agency, such as magic and mysti ...

ist Jacques-Toussaint Benoît (de l'Hérault), with the supposed assistance of an American colleague, Monsieur Biat-ChrétienAccording to Dickens, no one ever saw Monsieur Biat, and it is undetermined whether he really existed. in the 1850s.

The hypothesis

Benoit claimed that when snails mate, an etheric escargotic fluid forms a permanent telepathic link between them. This fluid forms an invisible thread that keeps the snails in "sympathetic communication" by using

animal magnetism Animal magnetism, also known as mesmerism, is a theory invented by German doctor Franz Mesmer in the 18th century. It posits the existence of an invisible natural force (''Lebensmagnetismus'') possessed by all living things, including humans ...

similar to an electric current pulsating along it.Howard, Toby. 1995.
Progress at snail's pace
. Accessed 28 May 2007. They claimed that this method would work instantly, wirelessly, over any distance, and be more reliable than a

telegraph Telegraphy is the long-distance transmission of messages where the sender uses symbolic codes, known to the recipient, rather than a physical exchange of an object bearing the message. Thus flag semaphore is a method of telegraphy, whereas ...

. This was not the first attempt to create a form of sympathetic communication. There are stories of Rosicrucians cutting pieces off the flesh of their arm and transplanting it with another person, with the alphabet tattooed on the flesh. By using a magnetized needle to prick the letters they wished to communicate,

telepathy Telepathy () is the purported vicarious transmission of information from one person's mind to another's without using any known human sensory channels or physical interaction. The term was first coined in 1882 by the classical scholar Frederic ...

would be achieved. It was upon these stories that Benoit built his theory. William Brooke O'Shaughnessy is one prominent telegrapher who experimented with using human skin to send and receive messages.

The apparatus

Benoit did not have enough financial capital to build his design. Benoit persuaded Monsieur Triat, manager of a Paris gymnasium, to give him lodgings and an allowance, having impressed upon him the importance of his discovery. After a year Triat's patience grew thin, and he demanded to see a working model.2004.
The Snail Telegraph
. Accessed 28 May 2007. The apparatus consisted of a scaffold of 10-foot-long wooden beams supporting zinc bowls lined with a cloth soaked in a copper sulphate solution; the cloth was held in place by a line of copper. At the bottom of each of the 24 basins was a snail, glued in place, and each associated with a different letter of the alphabet. An identical second device held the paired snails. To transmit a letter, the operator touched one of the snails. This was supposed to cause a reaction in the corresponding snail, which could then be read by the receiving operator.

Demonstration

On 2 October 1850 Benoit invited Triat and friend Jules Allix, a journalist from '' La Presse''. He first asked Triat and then Allix to stand at one station and to spell out a word – he would then tell them what the word was by reading from the receiving end. However, the transmission was inaccurate, with him supposedly receiving errors such as “gymoate” instead of “gymnase”, and he continually walked between the two devices, claiming that it was necessary to supervise his assistants to ensure that they were touching and reading the snails correctly. Triat began to suspect that it was a hoax. Allix, however, was convinced by the demonstration and wrote an article full of praise for Benoit's creation, which appeared in ''La Presse'' on 25 and 26 of October 1850. Among other praise, Allix suggested that ladies might wear the device on their "waist-chains". Triat demanded a second, stricter test, to which Benoit agreed. When the time came, though, Benoit had vanished. He was subsequently seen wandering the streets of Paris and died at the beginning of the year 1852.L'Abeille médicale : revue des journaux et des ouvrages de médecine, de chirurgie, de pharmacie, 1861-01-14, pp. 9-13.

Influence

During the 1871 uprising in the

Paris Commune The Paris Commune (, ) was a French revolutionary government that seized power in Paris on 18 March 1871 and controlled parts of the city until 28 May 1871. During the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–71, the French National Guard (France), Nation ...

, the need to send and receive secured messages prompted a revival of the idea by Marquis Rochefort, president of the barricades commission. However, it proved to be as unreliable then as it had originally been. The device also provided inspiration for the Japanese

manga are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan. Most manga conform to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century, and the form has a long history in earlier Japanese art. The term is used in Japan to refer to both comics ...

series '' One Piece'', which includes 'transponder snails' that function as telephones, fax machines, and surveillance cameras. Along with the Allix article in ''La Presse'' the story of the pasilalinic-sympathetic compass was covered by the 1889 book ''Historic Oddities and Strange Events'' by Sabine Baring-Gould.

Explanatory notes

References

{{Reflist, 30em

External links

The Internet of Snails: Escargotic commotion and the wood-wide web
''Cabinet'' Magazine

Gastropods and humans Telepathy Pseudoscience French inventions