DENTALIUM. 191 



Family DENTALI'ID^E, H. & A. Adams. 

 Genus DENTA'LIUM* Linne. PL V. f. I. 



See the account of the class for the characters of the family and genus. 



We find in Aldrovandus that, according to Brasavolus, 

 the generic name was anciently " antale " or " dentale," 

 the two names signifying a difference of size only. They 

 were not considered Conchse, being neither bivalves nor 

 univalves. Valerius Cordus called the larger sort an 

 " Enthalium," and the smaller a " Dentalium. v Some 

 persons ate them raw as well as cooked ; and druggists 

 sold the shells for medicinal purposes, believing them 

 to be of a mineral nature. Nicodemus Myropous put 

 the names into a Greek dress, viz. avraXi and rivraXc. 

 Martini distinguishes the " Antales \ 3 as being smooth, 

 and the " Dentales " as fluted and angular. 



1. Dentalium en'talist, Linne. 



D. entalis, Linn. Syst. Nat. p. 1263 ; F. & H. ii. p. 449, pi. lyii. f. 11. 



Body milk-white : tentacles slender and extensile, with oval 

 tips : foot flanked on each side by an irregularly scalloped 

 lobe. 



Shell tapering, not much curved, often irregularly divided 

 into segments by the successive accretions of growth ; it is 

 solid, opaque, and glossy : sculpture, slight concentric lines of 

 growth, and occasionally a few indistinct and extremely fine 

 longitudinal stria? towards the narrower end ; these strias, when 

 they occur, are not very numerous, and are only visible 

 with the aid of a magnifier: colour ivory-white, with some- 

 times an ochreous stain on the narrower part, caused by 



* Tooth shell. 



t Corrupted from Enthalium, an ancient name of the genus. 



