160 Dr. Maton's and Mr. Rackett's 
account is arranged agreeably to the system, and for the most 
part in the Avords, of Lister, but not without synonyms of pre- 
ceding authors and many remarks of his own. As the figures of 
the Harwich fossils are so numerous and so accurate, it is much 
to be lamented that the recent shells were not included among the 
engravings. 
BREYNIUS 
was another author who formed a systematic arrangement of 
shells. His " Dissertatio Physica de Poly thalamus" derives its 
principal merit from the more precise specification of the Belem- 
nita, AmmonitcP, and Orthoceratita: than had hitherto appeared. 
There are seven good plates of Echini accompanying this work. 
Breynius was author also of a Latin epistle to Sir Hans Sloane on 
the plants and animals of Spain, which appears in the Philoso- 
phical Transactions, and which contains a description (with 
figures) of Helix Janthina, mentioned by this author as " Cochlea 
colore speciosior." There is another epistle, (viz. " De. quibusdam 
Conchis minus notis") in the Mem. sopra la Fisica e Istoria Naturale. 
VALLISNERI, 
the celebrated Italian physiologist, whose pursuits were so simi- 
lar to those of Reaumur, did not, any more than the latter, dis- 
dain paying attention to testaceous animals. In his Opere Physico- 
mediche we find two dissertations ; one relative to the Teredo 
navalis, and another on the subject of some Chitons. The Teredo 
navalis gave rise to numerous essays about this time, more espe- 
cially in Holland and German}^. The former of these countries 
had peculiar reason to feel an interest in the history of that de- 
structive creature. In the year 1730, the persons appointed to 
take care of the dykes observed that the piles (which were made 
of the hardest oak) defending the low countries from the incur- 
sions 
