12 SYNOPSIS OF 



the subject was in. I shall be most agreeably disappointed if there be 

 not parts pointed out as erroneous which are substantially correct. It 

 will be observed that the works of M. Rafinesque are but little quoted. 

 This has arisen from the utter impossibility of satisfying myself as to 

 his species, causing me at an early period to abandon the task of mak- 

 ing out his very imperfect descriptions. His own discrepancy in the 

 names sent to Ferussac,* and those which are attached to specimens 

 here, together with the want of accordance in the tables made out by 

 his friends, have induced me to regard his claims as being too slender 

 to rely upon the decisions, so contradictory, of the several parties, in the 

 absence of the individual specimens noted. In the absence of these 

 specimens, w'hich no naturalist has, I believe, ever seen but the Profes- 

 sor, I feel myself compelled to prefer other authorities, which are now 

 almost universally received by our men of science. I am the more 

 fortified in this conclusion, when I see that his most ardent advocate 

 acknowledges that he has made six species from a single one ;t and the 

 absurdity is still stronger when we turn to Professor R.'s monograph, 

 and find that this single species has furnished several genera, and is 

 placed in fact in two different sub-families !! ! 



In regard to the Catalogue published last year by Baron Ferussac, 

 in which he gives precedence to many of Professor Rafinesque's names, 

 it must be remembered that this has been done on the authority of 

 others, and not from the inspection of the subjects themselves. Had 

 he known the manner in which these claims had been brought for- 

 ward, he certainly would have admitted them with doubt. 



• " Les erreurs involuntaires qui echappent a M. Rafinesque dans ses envois augmentent 

 aussi la difficulte de reconnaitre ses especes. Nous avons re^u de lui les memes coquilles 

 sous, diffe rents noms, et d'autres avec les noms evidemment autres que ceux qu'elles portent 

 dans sa Monographie. II en est resulte une difficulte inextricable pour la determination de 

 ses especes, et pour pouvoir etablir une synonymie exacte entre lui et les autres qui, depuis, 

 se sont occupes des Mulettes." — Magasin de Zoologie, p. 13. 



t Conrad's Synoptical Table on New Fresh Water Shells of the United States, p. 72. 

 U. triangularis. 



