PROSPECTUS 



OF A 



CATALOGUE AND SYNONYMY 



OF ALL THE 



GENERA, SPECIES AND VARIETIES 



OF 



IR/EdEILTT MOLLUSOA, 

 Described prior to January 1st, 1867. 



Compiled and published under the authority of the Conchological Section 

 of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia. 



In the \ear 1845 Miss Agnes Catlow, assisted by Lovell 

 Reeve, published a volume entitled " The Conchologist's No- 

 menelator : a Catalogue of all the recent Species of Shells." 

 This work, although necessarily, as a first attempt, very im- 

 perfect, proved extremely useful, not only as an index to the 

 volumes containing the original descriptions and figures, but 

 also as a catalogue for private collections, for conducting ex- 

 changes, etc. Some of the copies of this work were printed on 

 one side of the leaf only, so that they could be cut into labels. 

 The only extensive general catalogue of species which has 

 appeared since the publication of Miss Catlow's work is that of 

 Dr. Jay's collection of shells, fourth edition, 1850. Like the 

 former, it contains about ten thousand specific names, but it 

 gives the synonymy at greater length, besides localities. Both 

 these works are based on the Lamarckian system. 



Many smaller catalogues of private collections have since 

 been published, as well as monographs of particular families 

 and genera, including among the latter Pfeiffer's " Terrestrial 

 Mollusca," Kiener's " Monographie des Coquilles Vivants," 

 Chenu's " Illustrations Conchy liologiques," Krister's " Conchy 

 lien Cabinet von Martini and Chemnitz, continued," Reeve's 

 great work, the " Conchologia Iconica, 11 Sovverby's "Concho- 



