160 Dr. Matok's and Mr. Rackett's 



account is arranged agreeably to the system, and for the most 

 part in the words, of Lister, but not without synonyms of pre- 

 ceding authors and many remarks of his own. As the figures of 

 the Harwich fossils are so numerous and so accurate, it is much 

 to be lamented that the recent shells were not included among the 

 engravings. 



BREYNIUS 

 was another author who formed a systematic arrangement of 

 shells. His " Dissertatio Physica de Polythalamiis" derives its 

 principal merit from the more precise specification of the Belem- 

 nit(E, Ammonitce, and Orthoceratitce than had hitherto appeared. 

 There are seven good plates of Echini accompanying this work. 

 Breynius was author also of a Latin epistle to Sir Hans Sloane on 

 the plants and animals of Spain, which appears in the Philoso- 

 phical Transactions, and which contains a description (with 

 figures) of Helix Janthina, mentioned by this author as " Cochlea 

 colore speciosior." There is another epistle, (viz. " De quibusdam 

 Conchis minus notis,") in the Mem. sopra la Fisica e Istoria Natu7-ale. 



VALLISNERI, 



the celebrated Italian physiologist, whose pursuits were so simi- 

 lar to those of Reaumur, did not, any more than the latter, dis- 

 dain paying attention to testaceous animals. In his Opere Physico- 

 mediche we find two dissertations ; one relative to the Teredo 

 navalis, and another on the subject of some Chitons. The Teredo 

 navalis gave rise to numerous essays about this time, more espe- 

 cially in Holland and Germany. The former of these countries 

 had peculiar reason to feel an interest in the history of that de- 

 structive creature. In the year 1730, the persons appointed to 

 take care of the dykes observed that the piles (which were made 

 of the hardest oak) defending the low countries from the incur- 

 sions 



