156 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ACADEMY OF [May-Oct., 



SYNONYMIC STUDY ON THE MOLLUSKS OF THE DEPARTEMENT 



DES ALPES-MARITIMES MENTIONED BY ANTOINE RISSO' 



WITH NOTES ON THEIR CLASSIFICATION 



By Commandant E. Caziot 

 (Translated, and with Introductory Note, by William Healey Dall) 



[The work of Risso is important, apart from its monographic 

 character, for the reason that the author introduced many new 

 generic and specific names, thus modifying the current nomenclature. 

 During a brief visit to Nice in 1906, I found that the Risso collection 

 was still in the possession of his heirs, and not in any pubhc museum. 

 As criticisms of subsequent authors indicated that several of the 

 species upon which some of Risso 's new names were founded had 

 been incorrectly determined by him, it was highly important that 

 their identity should be fixed. No living author is more familiar 

 with the landshells of the district than the present distinguished 

 Director of the Municipal Museum at Nice, and, after some cor- 

 respondence, he kindly consented to summarize his conclusions from 

 a study of the original collection, now unfortunately not in the best 

 state of preservation. The shells of the Risso collection had orig- 

 inally been mounted in cartons, but in the course of more than ninety 

 years many of them have been detached and others lost through 

 the natural accidents to which such a collection is liable when not 

 in expert custody. Hence a certain number of identifications are 

 irretrievably lost. For such as still remain practicable students of 

 the subject will be under deep obligations to the author of this paper. 

 W. H. D.] 



Risso is the first author to publish a general review of the land and 

 fresh- water shells of the Maritime Alps. 



His work has been the subject of a review by two critics, first, 

 that of Gabriel Mortillet, who, in 1851, in the Bulletin de la Societe 

 d'Histoire Naturelle de Savoie (p. 72), said that the descriptions of 

 shells by Risso left much to be desired; and secondly by Bourguignat, 



* Histoire Naturelle des Principales Productions de 1' Europe Meridionale, 

 et Particulierement de celles des Environs de Nice et des Alpes Maritimes, vol. 

 IV, Paris, Levrault, 182G. 8° pp. 440, pi. 11. 



