LECTURE XL 16? 



natural state was unfortunately lost, and the figure 

 accompanying the description of that author was 

 executed from a specimen long preserved in spi- 

 rits, and which had totally lost its natural appear- 

 ance. It therefore, of course, gives no distinct 

 idea of what it was meant to elucidate. From the 

 time of Rurnphius the animal seems to have re- 

 mained in great obscurity, till it was lately again 

 described with accuracy by a French writer, and a 

 figure, said to be faithful, accompanies the de- 

 scription, and may be found in the voluminous con- 

 tinuation of Buffon's Natural History by Sonnini 

 and others. 



The animals of most of the remaining Linnaean 

 genera of the Univalve Shells are more or less al- 

 lied in shape to the common Snail, which is itself 

 allied in a similar manner to the naked or shell- 

 less animals called Slugs, belonging to the genus 

 Llmax among the naked Mollusca. 



Instead of taking up the time appointed for 

 this lecture with a mere enumeration of the Lin- 

 nasan genera of Shells, I shall content myself with 

 observing that they are admirably constituted on 

 the principles of true science, and are to be re- 

 garded as a very high improvement on all former 

 plans of arrangement ; but that they are to be 



