130 TEREDINID.E. 



plates. It is written in Latin. The work is a master- 

 piece of learned research, and replete with classical 

 allusions ; and it evinces far greater knowledge of the 

 organization of the moUnsca than that shown by any 

 of his predecessors with the exception of Reaumur. 

 He describes the external shape of the Teredo, then its 

 internal structure, its peculiar habitat, the method of 

 its perforating wood, the arrangement and uses of its 

 different parts, its sexual nature and propagation, its 

 teleological relations, its history, name, and definition, 

 together with an explanation of its sudden appearance 

 on the coasts of Holland ; and lastly he details all the 

 recipes which were known in his time to prevent its 

 destructive operations, and he suggested others in addi- 

 tion. Nor did he share the erroneous notions enter- 

 tained by most of his contemporaries as to its place in 

 the animal kingdom. He proved that it was a true 

 mollusk, and closely related to Pholas ; and he insisted 

 on the advantage, if not the necessity, of studying the 

 animal as well as the shell — thus anticipating, by nearly 

 a quarter of a century, the much lauded views of Adan- 

 son in both these respects. He distinguished no less than 

 three European species, viz. his T. marina (which was 

 perhaps the T. navalis of Linne) , T. navium of Vallisnieri 

 (7^. Norvaffica, Spengler), and T. oceani of the same 

 author or T. megotara, Hanley. The subject appears 

 to have fascinated him, much in the same way as a 

 capricious mistress does her lover, who now deprecates 

 the cruelty of his fair tormentor, and then extols to the 

 skies her beauty and gentleness. He calls the Teredo 

 a wicked beast, the worst plague that angry Nature 

 could inflict on man ; but he defends it against the 

 calumnies of certain anonymous writers who had pre- 

 ceded him, and he expresses in enthusiastic terms his 



