24 History of Conchology in the United States. 



Dr. Gould has been lately engaged on the Mollusca of the 

 North Pacific Expedition — short diagnoses of species appearing 

 in the numbers of the Boston Proceedings, to be followed at 

 some future time by the publication of an elaborate Government 

 Keport. 



When the State of Massachusetts added a Zoological Depart- 

 ment to their Geological Survey, to Dr. Gould fortunately was 

 assigned the Invertebrata of the State, comprising the Mollusca, 

 Annelida, and Radiata. The result of his investigations appeared 

 in a thick octavo volume published in 1841. This work is dis- 

 tinguished for the critical accuracy of its descriptions, and has 

 become a standard authority on our marine shells, of which it 

 describes many new species. While it is the first work embody- 

 ing the complete molluscous fauna of any portion of our coun- 

 try, it still remains the best. 



Dr. Gould was chosen by the executors of the will of Dr. 

 Amos Binney, to edit the work on the "Terrestrial Mollusks," 

 which was left incomplete by the death of that author. This 

 labor he performed with great skill and judgment. The illus- 

 trations were continued in the same magnificent style as they 

 were commenced under the direction of Dr. Binney, and the lit- 

 erary contents are augmented by descriptions of many new spe- 

 cies discovered prior to the publication of the third volume, at 

 the commencement of which they are inserted. Dr. Gould has 

 also contributed to the first volume, a valuable memoir of Dr. 

 Binney. Dr. Gould is an accurate and critical observer and 

 describer of natural objects. His pages exhibit to the eye the 

 individuality of his subject with the same clear analytical pre- 

 cision with which it impressed his own mind. He has been 

 very successful in his investigations, adding nearly one thousand 

 species to the recent Mollusca. 



John G. Anthony, of Cincinnati, has for years devoted his 

 attention to the study of the Melanians of the United States ; 

 and he has divided with Mr. Lea the honor of working up the 

 many species of this interesting family. 



Mr. Anthony's principal papers are, one in the Boston Pro- 

 ceedings, vol. iii, describing sixteen species of Melania, one in 

 the New York Lyceum Annals, vol. vi, April 1854, describing 

 fifty species collected by himself in the Southern States, and 

 another in the Proceedings of the Philadelphia Academy, Feb. 

 1860, describing fifty-eight species. 



S. S. Haldeman. Our fluviatile Gasteropoda, other than Me- 

 lanian, are best known through Prof. Haldeman's " Monograph 

 of the Limniades, and other fresh water univalve shells of North 

 America," published in eight numbers— 1840-44. The descrip- 

 tions of species in this work are very full, and admirably illus- 

 trated by the colored plates. 



