428 Dr. E. von Martens on new Species of Shells. 



Galemys for the Musk-rat, a genus very nearly allied, as is now 

 proved, to Mystomys ; and the animal is quite as much allied to 

 a Mouse or Rat as it is to a Weasel, which the name Potamogale 

 implies. Both the names, if strictly interpreted, have the objec- 

 tion that Fabricius so forcibly put against the use of generic 

 names having a signification, which has so frequently induced 

 me to use names which it is the fashion of some to call bar- 

 barous, though they appear to me much less barbarous than 

 many of the sesquipedalian Greek names which some of these 

 purists have given to the genera they have described. 



I see in M. Bocage^s paper that he quotes " Potamogale vehx, 

 Du Chaillu, Journ. N. H. Soc. of Boston, 1860, p. 361." But 

 no such combination of words is to be found in that work at the 

 page quoted, or in any other that I can find, not even in the 

 index. 



Therefore your adoption of this name is only adding another 

 to the superabundant names that have been applied to this 

 animal. 



I can only hope that you will reconsider the question. No 

 one is more desirous than I am that every one should have his 

 due claim for priority of description properly considered; but I 

 cannot but believe that in the interest of science one is called on 

 to resist the adoption of names given, as Potamogale was, with- 

 out any character, and with particulars that were only fitted to 

 mislead the student. 



I am, my dear Professor, 



Yours sincerely, 



John Edward Gray. 



XLIX. — Descriptions of new Species of Shells. 



By E. VON Martens, M.D. 



1 . Paludina purpurea. 



P. testa conico-globosa, obtecte perforata, solidula, lineis spiralibus 

 elevatis subtilibus numerosis sculpta, rufo-fusca, non fasciata ; 

 spira convexe conoidea ; anfr. 5, convexi, sutura mediocriter pro- 

 funda divisi ; apertura vix obliqua, subcircularis, superne rotun- 

 data, non angulata, intus purpurea ; peristoma interruptum, 

 rectum. 



Alt. 25, diameter major 22, minor 17, aperturse alt. 15, lat. 12imill. 



Australia, Murray Biver. The specimens in the Berlin Zoo- 

 logical Museum were received from Mr. Krefft. 



In young specimens a narrow umbilicus is to be seen, which 

 is shut up in the full-grown by the inner lip; the upper two 

 whorls are worn ofi" in the last. I am not aware of any species 

 closely resembling it. 



