How strong are snails?
The muscular strength of snails is surprisingly great. An experiment on a Helix aspersa weighing 1/4 oz showed it could drag vertically a weight of 2 1/2 oz., or ten time its own weight. Another snail weighing 1/3 oz. was able to drag in a horizontal direction along a smooth table twelve reels of cotton, a pair of scissors, a screwdriver, a key, and a knife, weighing in all no less than 17 oz. or more than fifty times its own weight. This was much the same as asking a man of 168 pounds to pull a load of over 4 1/4 tons.
