UNIVALVES. 115 
The genus Bulla is aptly named, from its general 
similarity to a bubble. The form of the shells com- 
posing the elegant genus Voluta naturally suggested 
its appellation, which signifies rolled up cylindrically. 
Of these, the V. pyrum, or Pear-shaped Voluta, an 
oval, ponderous, smooth shell, about half an inch 
long, and nearly half as broad, of a dusky white 
colour, is held sacred in China. Shells of this species 
are valued at considerable sums, and kept in pagodas 
by the priests, who occasionally use them in admi- 
nistering medicines to the sick, and at the coronation 
of the emperor, when they hold the sacred oil. 
They are sometimes elegantly carved, and used by 
allowing them to boil over the fire, as the means of killing, and 
then extracting them. Throwing the shells into boiling hot 
water answers the purpose equally as well, and it appears that 
the life of the animal is immediately extinguished, whereas a 
different mode inflicts a slow, excruciating death upon these 
innocent, unoffending creatures. I would also urge you to re- 
commend the same mode to the shell-collectors, pointing out to 
them the excessive and wanton barbarity of the method above 
alluded to. I would even go farther, and refuse to purchase 
any shells, the inhabitants of which had been subjected to 
similar torture. I once knew a lady, whose benevolent exertions 
entirely did away the barbarous custom of pegging live lobsters, 
which formerly subsisted on the western coast. If ladies and 
gentlemen would act with similar firmness, they would often 
have it in their power to do much good, and not a little to dimi- 
nish the aggregate of national cruelty, and consequently of 
national crime.” 
| a 
