1867.] DR. .1. E. GRAY ON THE CALYPTR-tlDy*;. 731 



then used for the mineral collections, and at length given up to 

 the zoological collections in 1840, I arranged the species in what 

 appeared to me natural groups, and took care to find out the names 

 that previous writers had given to those groups, and gave the cha- 

 racters of the groups and genera in a 'Synopsis' which was sold in 

 the Hall for a shilling. This proceeding at first excited the anger 

 of the persons who had adopted the Lamarckian system, some 

 of whom had a vested interest in works written on that system. 

 Knowing but little of the history of the science, they persisted in 

 believing that all the groups were creations of my own, and de- 

 nounced me as the manufacturer of an immense number of useless 

 genera. Thus in Sowerby's 'Manual of Conchology' there aic 

 numbers of genera referred to me which were formed when I was a 

 child, or even before I was born, and which often are onlv quoted to 

 be objected to. Yet that manual is a very useful work "for any one 

 commencing the study of conchology, as it contains a very good series 

 of figures of many more genera than are to be found in any other 

 English work on the subject. 



Observing the ignorance that generally existed on the subject, I 

 compiled a list of genera of recent shells, giving the tvpe of each 

 genus. This was published in the ' Proceedings ' of this Society 

 for 1847, and contained in a few pages a condensed account of the 

 labours of most conchologists that had written before that date. 

 This shoAved how many minds had been occupied with the arrange- 

 ment of shells, — and also that there were 810 well established genera, 

 many having several names, and that only a very small proportion 

 of them had been separated or named by myself. About the same 

 time Mrs. Gray published, for the use of students, etchings of the 

 animals of shells which she had been collecting for my use from 

 various sources. 



The publication of these two works, and the almost simultaneous 

 appearance of a work ' On the Synonyma of the Genera of Mollusca' 

 by Hermannsen, gave a great impulse to this study both in this 

 country and the continent. 



Dr. Philippi, during his voyage to Chili, compiled a ' Manual of 

 Mollusca,' cluefly based on my ' List of Genera.' 



Then the Messrs. Adams commenced a work on the ' Genera of 

 Mollusca,' based on the same list, and on the collection arranged 

 according to it in the British Museum. And more lately. Dr. Chenii 

 seems to have felt that the time had arrived when the French con- 

 chologists might be inclined to progress beyond the system proposed 

 by Lamarck, and published a * Manuel de Conchy liologie,' in 2 vols. 

 8vo, illustrated with figures of several thousand species. This work 

 is based on my 'List of Genera,' and on the 'Genera' of Messrs. 

 Adams, and is certainly one of the cheapest and most useful manuals 

 for the use of the shell-collector and malacologist that have yet been 

 compiled. 



The collection of shells exhibited in the British Museum first 

 showed to the conchologist and the pakeontologist the advantage of 

 the more scientific arrangement of the mollusca and their shells into 



