2 INTRODUCTION. 
in which species were first defined) has been fixed upon as the 
starting-point of zoological nomenclature, it is of paramount 
importance to first ascertain what were the objects really 
described by the great founder of binomial Conchology. 
Vast critical acumen has been displayed by Philippi, Menke 
and Deshayes, in eliminating many of the more doubtful Lin- 
nean species, and, had they enjoyed access, with a like ample 
leisure for continuous research, to the same sources from 
whence the matter in these pages has been derived, the present 
disquisition would have been superfluous. 
The manuscripts and private collection of Linneus were 
long ago transmitted to England, yet the zoological portion, at 
least, was rarely consulted, until the enthusiasm of the writer 
of these ‘ Notes’ had directed general attention to their im- 
portance. This deliberate neglect was not without reason, 
since, such was the bewildering and apparently inextricable con- 
fusion of specimens, that augmented errors would alone have 
resulted from any fitful attempts at identification. It was only 
by examining the cabinet as a whole, and by a tedious but ne- 
cessary analysis of its entire contents, that any trustworthy 
conclusions could be arrived at; and, even then, such oblite- 
rations have time, and such enravelment has the carelessness 
of a former possessor effected, that the fruits of the present in- 
vestigation bear little proportion to the years of toil which have 
been expended in obtaining them. 
Had the cabinet alluded to passed direct from the hands of 
Linneus to the Museum of the Linnean Society, where it now 
reposes (a venerated relique of the immortal Swede), without 
any intermediate possession by a third party, the sole additions 
to the typical examples coeval with the date of his publications 
would have been those he had acquired subsequently to the ap- 
pearance of the last edition of his ‘Systema;’ and as these 
were almost invariably found packed in separate papers or pill- 
boxes (often indeed indicated as undescribed), and not distri- 
buted, like the original types, in the metallic receptacles, their 
presence would have caused but little impediment to any deter- 
mined search. The collection, however, did not reach the 
Society direct, but was held for a while by the noted botanist 
Sir James Smith, during whose custody numerous other speci- 
mens were mingled with the ancient ones. This ill-advised 
