Women have helped change the world in many different ways, but possibly the strangest involved a woman from Glasgow named May Donoghue and a dead snail. In August 1928, she travelled to the nearby town of Paisley where she bought a bottle of ginger beer which caused her to become rather ill due to the fact it contained the remains of a decaying mollusc.

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#paisley #statue #glasgow #internationalwomensday #thesnailinthebottle

Donoghue sued the manufacturer, arguing that they were responsible for her illness in a legal action which became known as the 'Snail in the Bottle' case. She had to take it all the way to the House of Lords (then the highest court in the UK), but it was eventually settled in 1932.

The judgement in this case set in law the concept of a duty of care between manufacturers and the consumers of their products, and this set the foundation for modern negligence laws around the world.

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@thisismyglasgow
Somewhat ironically under current Legal Aid rules, she would never have been granted funding for the appeal. Who knows whether such an equally significant case has never been heard in recent years due to such pennypinching restrictions?