THE NAUTILUS. 



VOL. X. OCTOBER, 1896. No. 6 



SOME NOTES ON THE COLLECTION OF SHELLS IN THE MUSEUMS OF 

 PARIS, BERLIN AND AMSTERDAM. 



BY C. \V. JOHNSON. 



The collection of shells in the Museum of Zoology, Jardin des 

 Plantes, Paris, is one often referred to as being the only collection 

 in which you can see the recent and fossil species side by side. One, 

 therefore, naturally imagines what such a collection should be, and, 

 as usual under such circumstances, one is somewhat disappointed. 

 The collection is distributed as follows: Around the entire outer 

 portion or railing of the first gallery, in a case about two feet in 

 width, are arranged the Pelecypoda, while on the second gallery 

 around the entire wall, in a wide, slanting case or shelf (with corals 

 above and a series of eight drawers beneath) are arranged the Gas- 

 tropoda. This necessarily scatters the collection to a great extent, 

 and makes it very inconvenient. A collection of the recent and 

 fossil species arranged together is very interesting and instructive, 

 but it should be a special collection of such forms as can be readily 

 traced back through geological time, and which anyone would con- 

 sider to be the prototypes of the recent species; in other words, the 

 primary object of such a collection should be to show the evolution 

 of species and genera. The study of recent and fossil mollusca is 

 now divided into well-defined specialties ; no one person can cover 

 with success more than a few closely related groups, faunae or 

 formations; so it seems to us that a large collection should be ar- 

 ranged accordingly. The paleontologist must be a geologist, also ; 



