From the middle of this protrudes the head
and two horns, and these horns are large in the large species, but
exceedingly minute in the smaller ones. The head protrudes from them
all in the same way; and, if the animal be alarmed, the head draws
in again. Some of these creatures have a mouth and teeth, as the
snail; teeth sharp, and small, and delicate. They have also a
proboscis just like that of the fly; and the proboscis is
tongue-shaped. The ceryx and the purple murex have this organ firm and
solid; and just as the myops, or horse-fly, and the oestrus, or
gadfly, can pierce the skin of a quadruped, so is that proboscis
proportionately stronger in these testaceans; for they bore right
through the shells of other shell-fish on which they prey. The stomach
follows close upon the mouth, and, by the way, this organ in the snail
resembles a bird's crop. Underneath come two white firm formations,
mastoid or papillary in form; and similar formations are found in
the cuttle-fish also, only that they are of a firmer consistency in
the cuttle-fish. After the stomach comes an oesophagus, simple and
long, extending to the poppy or quasi-liver, which is in the innermost
recess of the shell.
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