MALACOPTERY Gil MALAY APPLE. 



laded to some analogous naked molluscs, to which he 

 imagined the shell must have belonged, if the more 

 pnilosophical arrangement suggested by Adanson, 

 with which he must have been acquainted, had any in- 

 fluence upon the changes this edition proves him to 

 have made, it was but to a small extent, and that 

 principally in the greater number of genera of shells, 

 and a better description of the affinities of species ; 

 but the animal portion benefited but little, for \ve see 

 among his mollusca the Aphrodites, Terebella?, and the 

 Lerncea, which are articulated animals, associated with 

 the Holothuria, Asteria, and Ecldnce, which are radiated 

 animals. In the classification of his genera of Tcs- 

 tacece, the anomalies are far more numerous ; we will 

 not recapitulate them, as they will be found in the 

 alphabetical distribution of this work. In short, 

 every thing tends to prove that Linnaeus was not 

 properly impressed with a knowledge of the mol- 

 lusca, or only deemed them an object of secondary 

 consideration. With regard to conchology, Linnaeus 

 has created a nomenclature remarkable for its general 

 accuracy and perspicuity ; but, as we have had occa- 

 sion to remark, in common with some of his greatest 

 admirers, a language sometimes disgracefully offensive 

 to modesty, and not to be sanctioned at any period in 

 civilised society. It will be observed that the system 

 of Linnaeus has been as much assimilated as. pos- 

 sible to malacoloiry ; his genera constantly preserved, 

 though more naturally approximated, and the names of 

 species, in many instances, not at all changed, though 

 in this instance considerable reformation has taken 

 place. With this slight outline of that portion of a 

 system which will ever remain a monument of human 

 industry and talent, combined with a rapid view of the 

 changes which have taken place by the indefatigable 

 researches and writings of more modern authors, we 

 take leave of the article MALACOLOGY, once more re- 

 peating the impossibility of doing full justice to the 

 subject or to its commentators in the space necessarily 

 assigned us ; we will, therefore, only take credit for 

 having endeavoured to condense within our limits all 

 that appears instructive, and, more particularly, 

 indispensable to the student than to the scientific 

 master, who, having already overcome the first diffi- 

 culties, creates others for himself, resulting from 

 the new light his understanding has received. Thus, 

 no boundary can be fixed to knowledge : it were 

 easier to circumscribe the current of the winds and 

 tides than check its outspread : all that can be done 

 is to turn it to useful purposes and a wise end. 



It may be well to add here that a subtype has also 

 been formed by the French naturalists, and called by 

 De Blainville MALENTOZOARIA, or articulated mol- 

 luscs. This group corresponds with the Linnsean sys- 

 tem of multivalve worms, omitting the genera Pholas 

 and Teredo, which are LAMELLIBRANCHIA. It contains 

 two well distinguished classes, whose species are in- 

 habitants of the seas of all countries, either fixed to 

 submarine bodies, or possessing a free range. The 

 first of these classes has evidently a considerable re- 

 semblance to the bivalve molluscs, as far as regards its 

 calcareous envelope, in which, by examination, pov- 

 tions may be found analogous to those of the Pholas, 

 and even to the tubular portions of other genera, 

 which circumstance probably induced Linnaeus to class 

 that genera with those, as well as from the position 

 of the head being downwards. There are also some 

 resemblances, not to call them affinities, with the En- 

 tomozoaria, in consequence of their possessing horny- 



articulated locomotive appendages, generally branchial 

 at their base, becoming, towards the mouth, true den- 

 ticulated corneous jaws, upon which account they 

 have been placed in this subtype as an intermediate 

 passage to, or connecting link with, the Entomozoaria. 

 The second class of this subtype has an evident con- 

 nection, in many resjrects, with the Ccplialopods ; in 

 fact, the animals possess the power of ranging freely 

 and of climbing like them, and although no apparatus 

 of special sensation has been discovered, the general 

 configuration of their bodies is extremely analogous 

 to that of the PhyllidicE, as there is, for example, a 

 masticatory process, not very dissimilar to the Patella ; 

 but the most important difference may be remarked 

 in the articulated disposition of the back of the pro- 

 tecting shell, and of the bundles or tufts of hair-like 

 bristles ; these, however, are each of them tubular, 

 and doubtless acted upon by distinct muscles, as feel- 

 ers or weapons of defence : the median termination 

 of the intestinal canal resembles the animals of some of 

 the Chetopods of the Entomozoaria, and, among others, 

 the Aphrodites. Thus, it may be said, that the pas- 

 sage from the Malacazoaria to the Entomozoaria is 

 effected in two series from the Acephalophora to the 

 Heteropoda by means of the Nematopods, and the 

 cephalous molluscs to the Chetnpods by the Chiton, so 

 that the two classes united in this subtype of molluscs 

 are necessarily very different in themselves, but essen- 

 tially conducive to illustrate the chain of natural gra- 

 dation from this division to the next immediate one of 

 nature, according to the position they now hold in 

 the scale of creation. In the first class of the sub- 

 type, the first is that of NKMATOPODA, Cuvier, and 

 Lamarck's CIRRHIPODA ; it includes, first family, 



Conia radiata. 



Lepidacea, second family Ealanidca, of which the 

 Conia radiata, here figured, is an example. Second 

 class POLYPLAXIPHORA, contains the genus Chiton 

 Lamarck's Oscabrella and Chitonellus. 



MALACOPTERYG II jointed fins. The se- 

 cond section into which Cuvier divides the true 

 fishes, and which consists of three orders, the prin- 

 cipal distinction of which is the arrangement of the 

 ventral fins. The grand character of the division is 

 that of having the rays of the fins jointed or com- 

 posed of several pieces. Those fishes are very nume- 

 rous, and comprise some of the most valuable genera, 

 both of the fresh waters and of the sea. A list of 

 them would be uninteresting as well as long ; and 

 therefore we must refer to them generally in their 

 alphabetical order. 



MALACOSTRACA (Leach). One of the 

 primary divisions of Crustacea, having the shell or 

 carapax of a hard calcareous nature, and comprising 

 the crabs, lobsters, &c., forming the first subsection 

 Podopthalma, with the eyes on foot-stalks ; and the 

 wood-lice, &c. (Isopoda, Amphipoda, &c.,) forming 

 the second subsection Ednophthahna, having the eyes 

 sessile. See CRUSTACEA. 



MALAY APPLE is the Eugenia Malaccensit of 



