206 AMERICAN JOURNAL 



attempt to do this to some extent in certain families is one of 

 the objects of this paper. 



I have not attempted in these notes to give a general synony- 

 my of the species ; but I have only added after the name of 

 each species a list of the names and their authors that are at- 

 tached to the specimens of the species described in Mr. Cuming's 

 collection, which are to be presumed to be the types of the 

 species described or figured under these names by the author 

 quoted. In some instances the state of the specimen named by 

 the author renders the determination uncertain ; then I have 

 added a mark of doubt before the names. 



At the commencement of this century shells were generally 

 arranged according to theLinnean system, and Dillwyn's ' Species 

 of Shells ' was one of the best works published, and Wood's ' Il- 

 lustrated Catalogue ' was a useful and cheap collection of figures ; 

 and the system suited very well for the small number of species 

 then known. 



Some of the older collectors preferred to use Humphrey's 

 catalogue, in which many modern genera were sketched out, 

 rather than the heterogeneous collection of species that were 

 crowded in the Linnean genera. 



Whenever a person hag! a large collection to arrange he found, 

 like Humphrey, that the shells fell into the natural groups that 

 were recognized by the public, who had given them vernacular 

 names. 



Thus Lichtenstein in Berlin, Schumacher in Copenhagen, and 

 Lamarck in Paris, each having a large collection to arrange, pro- 

 posed new groups of species, or genera, and a new arrangement 

 of the genera. 



Lamarck, who had been educated as a botanist, set to work to 

 describe the species in the genera which he proposed ; and that 

 gave a preponderance to his system. 



The use of the Lamarckian system was first introduced into 

 England by my predecessor, Mr. Children, who arranged the 

 shells in the British Museum on that system, and published a 

 translation of Lamarck's ' Genera,' illustrated with a figure of 

 each. Sowerby and Crouch published similar works. And more 

 lately the late Mr. Woodward, who seems to have been disturbed 

 at the rapid progress that the knowledge of the animals and 

 shells were making in this country, published his Manual, which 

 is written chiefly from a palaeontologist's point of view, trying 

 to stem the current ; and the manner in which his work has been 

 received, and is still spoken of, is a proof that he well under- 

 stood the calibre of the collectors both of recent and fossil shells. 



When the collection of shells was arranged in the eastern gal- 



