THE NAUTILUS. ist 
each variant appears to date back to the brothers Henry and 
Arthur Adams, who, although using the genus Turris as of 
Humphrey rather than Bolten, wrote the family name Turritidae 
in the first volume of their great review of molluscan genera,’ 
and then later corrected it to Turridae.* Their more mature 
judgment is therefore plainly in favor of the simpler spelling. 
It is mainly very recently that the insertion of the extra syllable 
has been revived. 
The essential facts of the case are believed to be fairly stated 
thus: 
1. ‘‘The name of a family is formed by adding the ending 
idae, the name of a subfamily by adding inae to the stem of the 
name of its type genus.’’ * 
2. The name of the type genus of the particular family in 
question is Turris, presumably an exact transcription of the 
Latin noun turris, meaning in English, ‘‘ tower.’’ 
3. The name of the family in question is variously spelled 
Turridae and Turritidae in the literature. The spelling Turrtidae 
has also been suggested for consideration. 
4. In Latin grammars (e. g., Allen and Greenough), turris is 
often given as the example par excellence of an i-stem noun, the 
stem therefore ostensibly turvi-. 
5. A recent proponent of the spelling Turritidae writes that 
he ‘‘submitted the question of ‘Turridae versus Turritidae’ to 
two expert Latinists, who, after due consideration of all the 
data, concluded that, while either was correct, the latter term 
under the circumstances was to be preferred. Here the matter 
now appears to rest. 
Now the writer has been one of those adhering to the spelling 
Turridae, and being still unconvinced of his error, yet eager to 
arrive once for all at a correct and therefore permanent usage, 
he submitted the case essentially as outlined above to a friend, 
a well-known student of Latin, Professor B. O. Foster of Stan- 
ford University, adding thereto the following specific queries: 
1 Genera of Recent Mollusca, v. 1, p. 87. 
* Op. eit., v. 2, p. 614. 
* International Rules of Zoological Nomenclature, Article 4 (Smallwood 
edition, p. 4). 
