Bibliographical Notices. 345 



BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTICES. 



Monographia Heliceorum Viventium. Auctore Ludovico Pfeiffer, Dr. 

 Leipsic : London, Williams and Norgate. 



After the lapse of many years, this long-announced publication 

 has at length made its appearance. The well-known lengthened 

 researches of the author, and his personal inspection of the typical 

 specimens in the chief museums and more important private collec- 

 tions of Europe, have excited a more than ordinary feeling of interest 

 respecting it, — a sentiment which the profound knowledge of his sub- 

 ject displayed by him in his intercourse with conchologists during 

 his recent visit to England has by no means tended to allay. It is 

 solely by that undivided attention to one particular branch of na- 

 tural history, which has been devoted to the investigation of the 

 Snails by Dr. Pfeiffer, that the unravelling of that tangled mass of 

 synonyms, which the presumptuous ignorance of tyros and the care- 

 less indolence of compilers have alike generated and fostered, can suc- 

 cessfully be attempted ; and the author's comparison of types and 

 frequent correspondence with other writers upon conchology com- 

 bine in giving a stamp of authority to his labours. The first part 

 only of this monograph of Helices is as yet before the public : we 

 learn however from the accompanying prospectus that the remainder 

 will be issued at no distant interval, and that the entire work will 

 occupy two octavo volumes. In 160 pages are contained diagnoses 

 of between four and five hundred species of shells ; the total number 

 intended to be described is 2100. This is an immense increase to 

 our knowledge of this family, the aggregate species of the several 

 genera included by our author under Helix amounting in the pages 

 of Lamarck to 224, of the second edition of the ' Animaux sans Ver- 

 tebres' by Deshayes to 536, and in Ferussac's great work to 573. 

 The following genera are regarded by Dr. Pfeiffer as coming within 

 the limits of his work : Anostoma, Tomigerus, Streptaxis, Odontostoma 

 {Proserpina), Helix (including Carocolla and Nanina), Bulimus, Acha- 

 tina, Pupa, Cylindrella, Daudebardia, Vitrina, Succinea, Balea, Tor- 

 natellina, and Clausilia. As no less than 1132 species belong to Helix 

 proper, a very elaborate sectional arrangement is proposed for faci- 

 litating their determination ; without which assistance indeed, the 

 toil of searching through some hundreds of descriptions in ascertain- 

 ing the name of a single specimen, would be insufferably tedious. 

 And yet this praiseworthy subdivision is neglected in the majority of 

 conchological monographs which are annually appearing ! 



The language in which the results of the author's observation and 

 reflection during a period of ten years (as he informs us) is commu- 

 nicated to his readers, is that universal medium of communication 

 among naturalists, the Latin tongue ; not sparingly used for brief 

 diagnoses, betraying too often the writer's inability to express him- 

 self satisfactorily and lucidly in it, followed by longer notes in his 

 vernacular explanatory of his meaning, but written throughout in 

 that classic dialect, without the interpolation of a single word of his 



