190 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ACADEMY OF [1898. 



ON THE GENUS HALIA OF KISSO. 

 BY WM. H. DALL. 



The systematic position of the genus Halia, a curious deep water 

 gastropod discovered in the last century, has long been contested. 

 Lamarck (who knew it only by the shell) put it among the land- 

 shells like Achatina, Martyn referred it to the whelks (Buccinidce), 

 Jay and Sacco classified it in the vicinity of Struthiolaria, and 

 Sowerby near Purpura. Fischer, in 1858, was the first to examine 

 it anatomically and concluded that it was one of the Toxifera, 

 related to Pleurotoma. The paper was one of his earliest and rather 

 crude; though it added materially to our knowledge, the conclu- 

 sions were not altogether satisfactory to students of molluscan 

 anatomy. Nevertheless his view has been accepted so late as 1896 

 by M. Cossmann, one of the leading paleontologists of France. In 

 1885 Poirier, of the Paris Museum, was lucky enough to obtain a 

 specimen, a female, like that of Fischer, dredged in fifty fathoms 

 at the mouth of the Gambia River. His discussion of the dis- 

 section 1 added very considerably to our acquaintance with the 

 macroscopic anatomy and that of the nervous system. He was, 

 however, little less unfortunate than Fischer in his examination of 

 the most important systematic character, the radula, and reported 

 an extraordinary duplication of the oesophagus, such as is quite un- 

 known elsewhere in mollusks, and which would require the most 

 conclusive confirmation to receive credence from anatomists. Poi- 

 rier reverted to the opinion of Martyn that Halia is Buccinoid, 

 which being interpreted into systematic language, means that he 

 recognized in it the characteristics of a rhachiglossate Prosobranch, 

 which is essentially correct. The true relations of this remarkable 

 form were first recognized by Kobelt in a later publication 2 which 

 has unfortunately remained unfinished and has attracted no atten- 

 tion from anatomists. In view of the fact that the early errors 

 have obtained such a wide currency and that, even in Fischer's 

 Manual, the characters of the nearest allied form are incorrectly 



1 Bull. Malac. Soc. de France, July, 1885, pp. 17-50, pi. II-IV. 



2 Inconographie der schalentragenden europ. Meeresconchylien, II, p. 6. 



