CFS Book: The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating

[Guest guest]

The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating, a book which recounts one year in

the life of CFS author beth has just been reviewed

by The Pharos, the journal of the Alpha Omega Alpha Medical Honor

Society. This journal goes to about 150,000 physicians

http://www.alphaomegaalpha.org/the_pharos.html. Permission has been

obtained to circulate this review to the co-cure list.

" Vivid descriptions of . . . Chronic Fatigue Syndrome . . . worth

reading by any physician who has ever doubted the sanity of

patients. " —The Pharos

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The Pharos/Summer 2012

The journal of the Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Medical Society

The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating by beth

Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, 2010.

Reviewed by A. Bennahum, MD (AOA, University of New Mexico, 1984)

REVIEW

How astonishing that in a quiet room a perceptive patient could hear

a wild snail eating dried flower petals. Not a surprise once I read

that Aristotle had observed that snails have teeth and that 's

woodland snail has 2,640 and some of its kin may have up to 10,000

teeth! beth , who has suffered from Chronic Fatigue

Syndrome, has written a most beautiful and life affirming book about

her accidental companion whom she introduces to the reader on the first page.

In early spring, a friend went for a walk in the woods and, glancing

down at the path, saw a snail. Picking it up, she held it gingerly in

the palm of her hand and carried it back toward the studio where I

was convalescing. She noticed some field violets on the edge of the

lawn. Finding a trowel, she dug a few up, then planted them in a

terra-cotta pot and placed the snail beneath their leaves.

The author describes with remarkable economy the long and disappoint-

in course of her illness, her hopes for experimental therapy, and the

cruel reality when later, " My doctors said the illness was behind me,

and I wanted to believe them. I was ecstatic to have most of my life

back. But out of the blue came a series of insidious relapses, and

once again, I was bedridden. " p5 She then continues with a series of

vivid descriptions of her experience of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome,

something worth reading by any physician who has ever doubted the

sanity of patients with this complaint. The author writes that her

" snail observations are from a single year of my nearly two decades

of illness . . . While I was snail watching, there was so much I did

not know about my small company- ion, and there was just as much I

did not know about my illness. I was curious about my snail's

species, and solving that puzzle would take several attempts and the

help of a few experts. Even more challenging was the mystery of the

pathogen that had forever changed the course of my life, and I would

track down the likely culprit. There was also the unknown future—my

own, and that of all living things. " p163–64

But this rewarding book is not just about illness; rather it is about

life as the author is gradually drawn to observing her new wild

companion. " When I woke during the night, I would listen intently.

Sometimes the silence was complete, but at other times I could hear

the com- forting sound of the snail's miniscule munching. " p17 Having

arranged for a terrarium to house her snail companion and added first

flower petals and then mushrooms to its diet (snails are

hermaphrodites), the author despite her disability embarks on a

thorough study of snails, ordering through inter-library loan the

twelve-volume compendium The Mollusca, which covers the entire phylum

of creatures without backbones that include the gastropods—snails and

slugs—and the cephalopods—including the octopus.

She goes on to read everything that she can find on mollusks from

Aristotle to Darwin, including novelists and poets who have

written about snails. Her bibliography is astonishing. It should not

be forgotten that Darwin had studied mollusks, a study that had

contributed to his great insight on evolution. It is also paradoxical

that Darwin suffered from some form of chronic fatigue that began

after his return from his seminal voyage on The Beagle. It has been

suggested that he had fibromyalgia or had acquired Chagas Disease in

Chile from observing a bug as it bit him, and that most of his

research and writing was despite recurring bouts of illness. Quoting

Darwin in the Descent of Man in 1871:

Mr. Lonsdale . . . informs me that he placed a pair of land-snails .

.. . one of which was weakly, into a small and ill-provided garden.

After a short time the strong and healthy individual disappeared, and

was traced by its track of slime over a wall into an adjoining

well-stocked garden. Mr. Lonsdale concluded that it had deserted its

sickly mate; but, after an absence of twenty-four hours, it returned,

and apparently communicated the result of its successful exploration,

for both then started along the same track and disappeared over the

wall. pp98–99

This is a very special book that reminded me of the early writing of

Carson. Richly packed with human experience, scientific

information, clinical observation and poetic insight this book will

bring joy, understanding, and considerable scholarship to any reader.

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Dr. Bennahum is a book review editor for The Pharos and a member of

its editorial board. He is emeritus professor of Internal Medicine at

the University of New Mexico School of Medicine. E-mail: dbennahum@...