26 History of Conchology in the United States. 



Indiana. By J. T. Plummer. 

 Illinois. By Robert Kennicott. 

 Michigan. By Dr. Abraham Sager. 

 Wisconsin. By I. A. Lapham. 

 Washington Territory. By Wm. Cooper. 



Lists of the Terrestrial, Fluviatile and Marine Shells of the 

 United States have been drawn up by Messrs. W. G. Binnej, 

 Temple Prime, Isaac Lea, P. P. Carpenter and Wm. Stimpson, 

 and published by the Smithsonian Institution. 



James E. DeKay, M.D. The Zoological Department of the 

 New York Geological Survey was committed to Dr. DeKay, (de- 

 ceased,) who in 1843 published a voluminous Report in quarto, 

 on the Mollusca and Crustacea. The Mollusca comprise 277 

 pages with forty colored plates. This work has been carelessly 

 compiled, and many of the species are almost unrecognizable 

 from the descriptions. A number of new species are proposed, 

 which would never have been brought forward, if Dr. DeKay had 

 made himself as thoroughly acquainted with his subject as he 

 should have done, before undertaking a work of such magnitude. 

 Still, despite its numerous faults, this volume is necessarily au im- 

 portant addition to conchological literature. In nearly every ge- 

 nus, short descriptions of the extra-limital species are given, so 

 that over six hundred species of American shells are contained 

 in it. The plates are roughly executed, and poorly colored. 



Wyman and Leidy. Our knowledge of the anatomy of our 

 terrestrial Mollusca is due almost entirely to the labors of Drs. 

 Jeffries Wyman and Joseph Leidy. 



The former has published in the fourth volume of the Boston 

 Journal, papers " On the Anatomy of Tebennophorus Caroliniensis," 

 and "On the Anatomical Structure of Olandina truncata, of Say." 



Dr. Leidy, of Philadelphia, has carefully investigated the 

 anatomical structure of our Terrestrial Gasteropoda, and has 

 published the results of his labors in the first volume of Bin- 

 ney's Mollusks and in pamphlet. This paper, the preparation of 

 which must have cost immense study, is illustrated by some of 

 the finest anatomical plates ever published in America. 



For the last ten years Dr. Leidy has occasionally described 

 new forms of American Marine and Fluviatile Polyzoa, (Bry- 

 ozoa), and we understand that he is preparing a monograph of 

 our fluviatile species. 



Louis Agassiz has given some attention to the anatomy and 

 embryology of our Mollusca. He has several short papers in 

 the Boston Proceedings, 3d vol., and an important article on the 

 Embryology of Ascidia in the second volume of Proceedings of 

 the American Association for the Advancement of Science. 



It is understood that a coming volume of Agassiz's " Contri- 

 butions" will contain an elaborate account of the embryological 



