TEREDO. 65 



imi^ortant researches of Sir Everard Home * redeemed us, 

 however, from the shir of neglect of the study of the ani- 

 mal, and were the greatest steps made towards a know- 

 ledge of its anatomy. Lately, M. Deshayes has given an 

 elaborately detailed account of its organisation, -f- with 

 gorgeous, but often redundant, figures ; and an excellent 

 essay, in which full justice is done to the labours of Sellius 

 on the same subject, has been published by Drs. Frey and 

 Leuckhart.| 



The older writers give many details of the habits and 

 ravages of this destructive mollusk. They believed that it 

 ate up the wood into which it bored, a notion which has 

 long been disproved, and which was first opposed by Adan- 

 son. How the Teredo bores is a much disjwted point even 

 now, and very conflicting opinions have been put forward 

 on this interesting subject, the examination of which it is 

 convenient to defer until we come to treat of kindred mol- 

 lusks, the Pholades. It is a question of no small import- 

 ance, in an economic as well as in a physiological point of 

 view. The operations of the Teredo in 1730 threatened to 

 submerge Holland, and, as we have seen, led to the first 

 careful researches into the structure of the animal. Our 

 friend Mr. W. Thompson has given a very full account of 

 its proceedings on the British coast, especially in the har- 

 bour of Port Patrick ;§ and previously Sir Everard Home 

 and Mr. Osier had, in the " Philosophical Transactions," no- 

 ticed many instances of its destructive power. It does not 

 appear that the kind of wood makes very much difterence 

 with the Teredo. Its rule of boring seems to be to follow 

 the grain if possible, though when an impediment comes in 



• Philosophical Transactions. -j- MoUusques d'Alg^rie. 



X Beitrage zur Kcnntniss Wiebelloser Thiere, 1847. 

 § Edinburgh New Phil. Journ., 1835. 

 VOL. I. K 



