TEREDO. 213 
will step in to announce the truth and dispel the mists of 
prejudice. 
I am, Gentlemen, your most obedient servant, 
WiriiaM Crark. 
TEREDO, Adanson. 
I infer that this genus is still involved in great obscurity 
from the serious mistakes that exist in the accounts of it: 
this is the more remarkable, as it has attracted great atten- 
tion. for the last 200 years, in consequence of its devasta- 
tions, which have been so alarming, that various governments 
have called in the aid of the learned and scientific to examine 
into their nature, and suggest the best means of preventing 
them. 
Some authors, amongst them Sir Everard Home, call the 
external veins the ducts of the testicles, and say the heart is 
situated near the head. More modern accounts state that 
there is no true hinge; that the ligament is obsolete, and the 
foot rudimentary or absent; the branchize are described as 
long brown fleshy cords; the elastic stylet is mentioned as a 
club-shaped body peculiar to Teredo, and the animal is said to 
be furnished with two stomachs. Some observers say, that the 
anterior adductor muscle is well marked, but the posterior one 
slightly ; others affirm the branchiz to be the ovaria, and that 
the protective tube of Teredo megotara is destitute of the pos- 
terior circular laminz. I propose to show that not one of 
these statements is correct. I am informed that M. Deshayes 
has given anatomical details of one or more of the Tere- 
dines in his work on the ‘ Mollusques d’ Algérie,’ which I have 
had no opportunity of consulting; I must therefore abide by 
my own views. 
The origin of this account was the receipt from Exmouth of 
a pine stake, which had doubtless served as a water-mark in 
one of the channels of the estuary, and being destroyed by the 
perforations of these creatures, was taken floating in the offing 
at that place. I received the mass enveloped in sea-weed, 
accompanied by bottles of sea-water. The log contained fifty 
