THE NAUTILUS. 15 
whether certain species dissolve their shells and construct new 
ones as their bodies increase in size. 
A large example of an Argonauta in the collection of the 
Boston Society of Natural History has been frequently referred 
to in literature. Ata meeting of the Society, held March 15th, 
1854 (Proc. Boston Soc. Nat. Hist., vol. 5, p. 35), it was re- 
corded that ‘‘ Dr. A. A. Gould made some remarks upon the 
collection of shells presented to the Society by the family of the 
late Col. Perkins. * * * To one shell in particular he called 
attention, the large Argonauta, commonly called Paper Nauti- 
lus, and which is the largest specimen known to exist. Its 
measurements are 117 by 74 inches; the next largest specimen 
in the Museum of the College of Surgeons, London, measures 
?# of an inch less than this. This large-specimen was brought 
from the Indian Ocean.”’ 
In the same vol., p. 370, this shell was again referred to 
under the title ‘‘On the Animal of the Argonauta Shell,’’ by 
John C. Warren. He says: ‘‘The beautiful specimen of the 
A. compressa Blain. presented to the Society by Col. Thomas H. 
Perkins was also exhibited; this shell, which cost him $500, is, 
according to Dr. Cabot who has made the comparison, the 
largest Argonauta shell in any cabinet in Europe or America. 
D’ Orbigny in his great work gives as the measurements of the 
largest he has examined: greatest length of the shell 94 inches, 
while our specimen is 10 inches; greatest diameter of the open- 
ing 6% inches, in our specimen it is 64 inches; greatest width of 
the opening, including the auricular appendages, 3 inches, 
while in ours it is four inches.’’ 
In the Structural and Systematic Conchology, vol. I, p. 151, 
Tryon says: ‘‘The Boston Society of Natural History possesses 
an Argonauta argo or Paper Nautilus shell, which is said to 
have been purchased for $500 by the gentleman who presented 
it to that Society. It is a common species, and the only reason 
for the great valuation of this specimen is that its diameter is 
about two or three inches greater than any other individual 
known to naturalists.’’ 
Tryon again refers to this specimen in the Manual of Con- 
chology, vol. 1, p. 136. This specimen was later figured and 
