Historical Account of TestaceologicallVriters. I69 



KLEIN. 



The first work published by this author which it falls within our 

 province to notice is his " Descriptiones Tubulorum Marinorum" 

 containing nine plates, Avhich represent chiefly different species of 

 BclemnitcE ; but he notices also various species of recent Testacea, 

 as Solaies, Dentalia, «Scc. in order to complete his arrangement of 

 the tubular coverings of animals. But the principal testaceo- 

 logical performance of this author was his " Tentamen Methodi 

 Ostracologicce," a work (as its title implies) written professedly 

 with views to the establishment of a S3'stem, but which, though 

 the composition of a very able naturalist, certainly does not pos- 

 sess the merit of practical utility. The general divisions (forming 

 parts, sections, classes, and ge7iera) are too numerous, and, what is 

 worse, species are constituted in some instances without being 

 referable to any genus; ana in one of the parts there is a solitary 

 genus without any class. The specific descriptions, however, are 

 for the most part sufficiently full and precise, and there are fre- 

 quent references to Aidiovandus, Gesner, Buonanni, Lister, and 

 Kumphius. The work contains twelve plates; the figures are one 

 hundred in number, but exhibit a harshness which is not com- 

 pensated by any extraordinany correctness, and most of them 

 are copies. A subjoined dissertation, " De Formafione, Cremeiito 

 et Coloribiis Testarum," deserves to be considered as the best part 

 of the volume, for it contains many physiological remarks of an 

 original and curious nature. This subject, though taken up by 

 so early an author as Buonanni, had not hitherto been entered 

 into so much as the nature of it demanded. — Klein wrote also on 

 the Lcpas anatifcra, in the Memoirs of the Nat. Hist. Society of 

 Dantzic. 



VOL. vir. z JO, 



