INTRODUCTION. 37 
succeeding the article on Conchology, also by Mr. Say, 
published in the Journal of the Philadelphia Academy, 
is dated in January, 1821. These are the two earliest 
publications relating to this subject ; and, although their 
date is so recent, they anticipated all foreign publica- 
tions, and secured the priority of the descriptions and 
names contained in them. The same good fortune has 
attended the later publications here, so that it may be 
said, that with a few exceptions, American species 
have been first described by American naturalists. The 
exceptions are, descriptions by MM. Muller, Ferussac, 
and others, of species common to the Antilles, and some 
parts of the shores of the Gulf of Mexico, as well as to 
the United States ; and by Mr. Rackett, of a single 
species from Canada, published in the Linnrean Transac- 
tions in 1822. It seems remarkable, considering the 
frequent intercourse between this country and Europe, 
and the activity that already prevailed among European 
naturalists in procuring new objects from foreign coun- 
tries, that so few American species fell into their hands 
previous to the time when the American publications 
commenced. Indeed, they seem to have been better 
known to Mr. Lister in 1770, than to M. Lamarck in 
1822, the former having given figures of nine or ten of 
them, against descriptions of only five by the latter. 
The titles of the various papers, memoirs, catalogues, 
and more elaborate works, relating to the terrestrial 
mollusks, may be found in the catalogue of American 
authors contained in the preceding pages. On reference 
VOL. I. 11 
