The most interesting thing about the snail in the ginger beer bottle is that....there wasn't one. The whole of the modern law of negligence is built upon a hypothetical semi-decomposed snail. (Donohue v Stevenson went to the Lords on assumed facts. When it went back for trial, it was found that there was no snail in the bottle after all).
As for Ludwig's question, my head is too muzzy from lunchtime sunshine (not claret, honest) to delve into that one. Anyway, it's time for me to do some paid lawyering for a change.