298 AMERICAN JOURNAL 



ON THE PROPRIETY OP LEPTOXIS AS A 

 GENERIC NAME. 



BY S. S. HALDEMAN. 



Speaking of Eafinesque's descriptions, Professor Agassiz 

 says (Am. J. Sci., March, 1854, p. 299): — "Should naturalists 

 be more generally inclined to correct simply what they con- 

 sider as errors in their predecessors, instead of discarding al- 

 together what they cannot at once determine, we should have 

 much fewer of those nominal species in our descriptive works, 

 which are the curse of our scientific nomenclature." And in 

 a later number (May, 185-i, p. 354) : — "I do not hesitate, there- 

 fore to adopt Eafinesque's name as the older; the more so, 

 since this writer has at the same time wisely separated from 

 the common Catostomi, at that early day, two other types of 

 the same group, which are even now left among Catostomi by 

 all ichthyologists." 



The American Journal of Conchology (vol. i., p. 80,) pays 

 a high compliment to Eafinesque's genius, and states, that 

 "each fresh mind brought to the investigation of dif&cult 

 questions, will evoke some new truth, which his predecessors 

 have failed to perceive." Among these we may cite the resto- 

 ration of species to Linnaeus and other old authors as late as 

 the present century, and the recognition of the fact that "Lep- 

 toxis^^ indicates a definite genus. But, according to the same 

 Journal, (last line of page 82,) "there is positively no excuse" 

 for superseding Anculosa {Anculotus?) \iith. Leptoxis. 



Whether I determined LepAoxis from a manuscript figure or 

 otherwise, I do not remember, nor is it to the purpose, the 

 validity of the determination being admitted. The oldest ob- 

 jection to "Xep^ox^s" is, that it may indicate a short Limnsea, 

 and the American Journal of Conchology, p. Ill, says, that 

 "the published description refers equally well to Physa, or 

 some species of Lymnxa!''' Two words of Eafinesque's descrip- 

 tion settle this objection, namely, "Eyes exterior." This makes 

 it a Strepomatid, and the character of the aperture — "almost 

 as large as the whole shell " — demonstrates that it is a Leptoxis, 

 and that the adoption of this name in my monograph is as 

 just and as valid a restoration as can be found in the entire 

 range of conchology. 



