MUREX. 



From tliese quotations it appears that the costly purple dye 

 was an African production, and not obtained from the Eu- 

 ropean coasts of the Mediterranean. Horace mentions the 

 Murex of the Italian shores 



" Murice Baiano melior Lucrina peloris." 



This Murex of the Baise may be our M. erinaceus, the M. un- 

 datus, (Buccinum undatum auctorum,) or any other species ; it 

 is not spoken of in connection with a dye, but as an edible 

 shell-fish, inferior to the Peloris of the Lucriiie lake : what 

 this may be is qm'te conjectural. 



It must have been observed that the descriptions of the 

 numerous Muricidal species are so similar as to give the idea 

 of ringing the changes on the various organs, and it would 

 appear that we have only exhibited the portraiture of a single 

 animal inhabiting all the species that have been mentioned. 

 If this view is acquiesced in, I shall have accomplished 

 the object of my preliminary proposition, viz., that the 

 Linnsean genera Murex and Buccinum have been dismembered 

 to an extent far beyond the requirements of the progress of 

 science. 



I conclude by observing that it may be objected, that I 

 have dispensed with all considerations of the figure and 

 markings of the shell as contributing to generic distinction. 

 I admit this position, as I am of opinion that when the ani- 

 mals of a group are identical in essentials, the greater or less 

 tumidity and the smooth or varicose aspect of the external 

 hard parts are only specific indices arising from the various 

 dispositions of the mucous glands of the mantle. I consider 

 the causes I have mentioned, of the different aspects of the 

 shells inhabited by similar animals, in no other light than the 

 different aspects of the organs of the human race, which arise 

 from similar agents, as the ever-varying disposition of the 

 superficial veins, of the pores, absorbents, and other emunc- 

 tories, combined with climate, food, and pecidiar habits. 



With regard to malacology, I am strongly supported in 

 these opinions by having in my cabinet a large series of all 

 the varieties of the Murex undatus (Buccinum undatwn 



