PREFACE. 



There is probably no Collection which has been more enquired after, or 

 more carefully studied, both by English and Foreign Malaeologists, than 

 the Eocene MoUnscan Collection of the late F. E. Edwards. 



This gentleman formed one of a little band of early Metropolitan 

 geologists, who associated together in 1838 for the purpose of collecting, 

 describing, and illustrating the Eocene Mollusca. They named their 

 Society the " London Clay Club," and the members were Dr. J. S. Bower- 

 bank, F.11.S., Searles V. Wood, F.G.S., Prof. John Morris, F.G.S., Alfred 

 White, r.L.S., Nathaniel T. Wetherell, F.G.S., James de Carle Sowerby, 

 F.L.S., and Frederick E. Edwards, F.G.S. Originally intended to illus- 

 trate the fossils of the London Clay, Mr. Edwards extended his researches 

 over the Eocene strata of Sussex, Hampshire, and the Isle of Wight, 

 where, assisted by Mr. Henry Keeping, he made the most complete 

 collection ever attempted by any geologist in a single series of deposits. 

 This Collection was acquired by purchase, for the British Museum, in 

 1872-73. 



The value of the accompanying list is still further enhanced by the 

 addition to it of the types from the "Dixon," "Wetherell," " Bowerbank,'' 

 " Sowerby," and other Collections, so that it contains not only many new 

 and undescribcd forms, but also all the types hitherto described as far as 

 it has been possible to determine them. 



Formerly it was deemed that a species of Mollusk from the London 

 Basin should bear a distinct specific name from that of a like shell found 

 in the Paris Basin. Now happily broader views prevail, and the Mala- 

 cologist who would succeed must now compare his own specimens also with 



