6 



In addition to these inaccuracies, the absence of detail has rendered the figure 

 useless and inapplicable to the purposes of science, and it has been justly pro- 

 nounced by Cuvier to be " indechiffrable."* 



The description of the soft parts by Rumphius, though Umited in a great 

 measure to the external appearances, possesses more merit ; and whilst by the 

 account of the beak, the funnel, and the eyes, it proves the affinity of the Pearly 

 Nautilus to the Cephalopods, it at the same time, in the account of the ten- 

 tacles, digitations, and posterior membranous siphon, points out the principal 

 external differences. 



This description, translated into the French language, has been pubhshed by 

 Denys de Montfort, in the Continuation of Buffon by Sonnini. The figures, 

 however, with which we are also favoured by that writer, are purely fictitious. In 

 these the errors of Rumphius's figure are strongly exaggerated, and in the attempt 

 to represent ideas acquired from his description, they prove, as might be ex- 

 pected, ludicrously remote from nature. 



In the progress of Natural History, therefore, after the sera of Rumphius, 

 the nature of the animal of the Pearly Nautilus received no further elucidation ; 

 but, as the principles of classification attained greater exactness and precision, 

 the heterogeneous shells which, from the claims of their inhabitants to the 

 Cephalopodous character, had heretofore been grouped together, were separated 

 into distinct genera. The first of Aristotle's Nautili became successively a 

 Cymbium of Gualtierif and an Argonaut a of Linn?eus|, whilst the species least 

 known to the ancients was permitted to retain the ancient denomination. 



The figure of Rumphius, being thus unsupported by any additional evidence 

 worthy of reliance, has become to succeeding writers a subject of comment and of 

 doubt ; and in the latest notice respecting the soft parts of the Nautilus Pompilius 

 appears to have been altogether disregarded. This notice is entitled " Description 

 d'un Fragment de Mollusque inconnu, presume' itre celui du Nautile flambe' (Nautilus 

 Pompilius, Linn.)," and has been inserted by MM. Quoy and Gaimard, NaturaUsts 

 to the circumnavigatory expedition of Captain Freycinet, in the 20th volume of 

 the Annales des Sciences Naturelles. The portion of the animal which is the sub- 

 ject of their description, and of which a figure is also given, was found in the sea 



* R'egne Animal, iii. p. 366. f Index Testantm Conchyliorum, tab. xi. xii. 



\ Mus. Ludov. Ulrica Reginee, p. 548, No. 148. 



