448 PYRAMIDELLIDA, 
Cu. ntvosa, Montagu. 
Odostomia truncatula, Brit. Moll. iii. p. 294, pl. 96. f. 8 (adult). 
O. cylindrica, Brit. Moll. iii. p. 287, pl. 96. f. 7 (juv.). 
The animal has not occurred. 
I have now stated all that I know, agreeably to my views, 
of this difficult and interesting genus, and corrected some 
popular errors as well as those of observation, and particularly 
many of my own; for however greatly our amour propre may 
suffer by such admissions, there is absolutely no other alter- 
native but to make them, as, if omitted, or not made at the 
proper moment, we should be left pretty much in the same 
position as the Chancellor of the Exchequer’s regiment of 
conscience-money payers,—a curious public fact, illustrative of 
one of the mysterious operations of the human mind, which 
if properly pondered on, will suggest to us all, in respect of 
the present and the hereafter, many salutary, important, and 
high considerations. 
I have more than once alluded to these pots, but when 
I see gross and persevering error stalk abroad, sapping the 
foundations of science, and rendering everything uncertain by 
disiagenuous fabrications, and appropriations of other men’s 
labours, one cannot always hear and hold our peace,— 
‘Semper ego auditor tantum? nunquamne reponam, 
Vexatus toties ?”’ 
One word more on the useless practice of stringing together 
long lists of bare names, habitats, and scales of rarity, without 
a syllable of distinctive matter, either on the animal or shell ; 
these things are all very well as adjuncts of description, but 
without it, worthless and unmeaning expletives. Science does 
not consist in the fabrication of hard and empty names, which 
convey no more information than the perusal of pages of 
“ Aldiborontophoscophormio,’ and the changes that can be 
rung on that celebrated cabalistic compound. I trust enough 
has been said to discountenance such meretricious attempts 
to personate true science ; conscience must stamp them as the 
