GALEOMMA. 187 



f 



form of the dangerous maxim laissez faire. The great 

 masses are like children, and ought to be educated as 

 well as protected ; and if proper tuition is not afforded, 

 their minds may be occupied with other and less inno- 

 cent thoughts, and deplorable consequences may result 

 to their short-sighted governors from a want of timely 

 precaution. As Montaigne aptly says, " Fame descharge 

 ses passions sur les objets faux quand les vrais luy de- 

 fafflent." 



Let us, however, return from politics to Galeomma. 



Its nearest ally is Area. Both have the same shape, 

 the ventral gape is similar, the hinge-line is nearly as 

 straight, and the mantle is equally furnished with ocelli. 

 But here the analogical resemblance ends. The animal 

 of Area has no tube, and the shell is of a different tex- 

 ture. That of the present genus has an internal carti- 

 lage instead of an external ligament, and it entirely 

 wants the peculiar teeth of the Area family. Mr. Clark 

 must have been mistaken in supposing he saw " oblique, 

 though nearly obsolete teeth on the ligamental line in 

 Galeomma Turtoni" Owing to the thinness and trans- 

 parency of its shell, the oblique striae which ornament 

 the external surface are indistinctly perceptible through 

 the hinge-plate of its outer edge; and I believe this 

 appearance may have misled my usually most accurate 

 friend : I have carefully and closely examined, with dif- 

 ferent powers of a first-rate microscope, the hinge-appa- 

 ratus of many fresh specimens, and never could detect 

 the slightest vestige of any tooth. In the ' Proceed- 

 ings ' of the Zoological Society for 1855 is contained an 

 excellent paper by M. Deshayes on this genus. He has 

 there described no less than twelve new species, in addi- 

 tion to G. Turtoni and (provisionally) the Psammobia 

 vitrea of Quoy. Eleven of these new species, however, 



