250 THE PROCEEDINGS OF THE LINNEAN SOCIETY 



PAPERS READ. 



On some Australian Shells, described by Dr. A. Gould, by the 

 Rev. J. E. Tenison- Woods, F.G.S., &c, Cor. Mem. Lin. 

 Soc, N. S. W. ; of the Roy. Soc, Tas. ; and Hon. Memb. 

 Roy. Soc., N. S. W., &c. 



Many Australian Naturalists have no doubt been puzzled, as I 

 have often been, to find the name of Gould as a reference after 

 some Australian Mollusca, and though it is generally known that 

 it is the name of an American conchologist, yet few have been 

 able to compare any of his descriptions. As the works he wrote 

 are extremely numerous and for the most part scattered through 

 various American publications, I thought it might be a useful 

 work to bring together, as far as they were accessible to me, all 

 his descriptions of Australian species. They were for the most 

 part contained in the Proceedings of the Boston Society of 

 Natural History, but were continued through several volumes. 

 I am not aware of any copy of this publication except in the 

 Melbourne Public Library, and I availed myself of a visit to 

 Melbourne last year to copy all the Australian references. This 

 was done for my own use, but I think I shall be rendering a 

 service to my scientific brethren and to the public, by publishing 

 my notes, together with such information as I have been able to 

 gather of the Australian species described by Dr. Gould, and of 

 his own life and labours. 



He was born at New Ipswich, in the United States (New 

 Hampshire County), on the 23rd April, 1805, and entered the 

 American Cambridge University in 1821. After some time he 

 was appointed a tutor in the same college, and having chosen the 

 medical profession he became house student in the Massachusetts 

 General Hospital. He graduated in 1830. From his youth he 

 had manifested extraordinary industry, with a great taste for 

 Natural History. Both these qualities were exhibited in his first 

 work, which was a Monograph of the Cicindelao of Massachu- 

 setts, published in 1834. This was quickly followed by a 

 classified catalogue of 50,000 pamphlets in the collection of the 



