404 PYRAMIDELLID #. 
possessing the Muricidal retractile proboscis, as well as the 
rostrum of the Littormidan race from whence it has proceeded. 
In the Mollusca, there is nothing extraordinary in this com- 
posite structure; we see it exemplified in the different plans 
of reproduction. All these circumstances point out the com- 
plexity and difficulty of the investigation of these singular 
animals; an hour or a day’s examination is of little avail ; 
they must be constantly studied for weeks, with a regular 
supply of fresh specimens, as torpidity always ensues in less 
than twenty-four hours; and they must not only be examined 
by day and sunlight, but also by the argand-lamp and wax- 
taper. We must literally attend, for these diminutive crea- 
tures, to the precept— 
‘* Nocturna versate manu, versate diurna.’’ 
The observations on each species which have appeared in 
the ‘ Annals of Natural History’ during the last three or four 
years will not be strictly amalgamated, but merely placed 
together to show the progress of science in new discoveries 
and rectifications, including the year 1854: every reader will 
easily cull from them the information he requires. 
Before I enter on the descriptive notes, I present a few 
additional observations, and supply some omissions, on the 
peculiarities of the Chemnitzie, in which I shall endeavour to 
dispel some of the clouds that still envelope this difficult and 
interesting group; and I shall also give a short catalogue 
raisonné, that is, a remark or two on every British Chemnitzia, 
whether genuine or apocryphal, sweeping away the phantoms 
of the genus, and thus establishing the means of identifying 
every genuine species; whereby the collector will be enabled 
to complete his list without fretting himself by endeavouring 
to obtain many recorded objects, which may as well be looked 
for as the philosopher’s stone or perpetual motion. This 
review of the tribe, which I call Chemnitzie, and others of 
the moderns partly Chemnitzie and partly Odostomie, will, 
I think, interest and be singularly useful both to the malaco- 
logist and conchologist. In my eaposé I shall show that this 
group, from its comparative difficulty and obscurity, has long 
