- THE - CONCHOLOGISTS’ - EXCHANGE. 
115 
Bythinias. I think they devoured the food of 
the others, and so starved them out. The 
American shells in this way were yielding to 
foreign invaders. ‘The latter thrive here and 
better specimens can now be had in New York 
than in Europe. 
Though Carychium exiguum (Say) belongs 
to low lands, I have found it at the base of 
lime-stone cliffs, and other shells may as unex- 
pectedly occur. 
A NOTED SCIENTIST DEAD. 
GEORGE W. TRYON, JR., THE EMINENT CON- 
CHOLOGIST, AND HIS WORK FOR SCIENCE. 
George W. Tryon, Jr., whose death occured 
on Sunday afternoon, February 5th, 1888, was, 
since the death of Mr. Lea, the most prominent 
conchologist in this country, if not in the world, 
and his loss will be severely felt, not merely in 
this city, but wherever natural history is 
studied. 
He was the son of the well-known gun- 
smith of this city, Edward K. Tryon, and was 
born in the Northern Liberties, on Green Street, 
between Front and Second, May 20, 1838. 
His education was gained at Friends’ school, 
| 
and at an early age he engaged in business with | 
his father and brother ‘The lack of collegiate 
education he amply made up in later life by 
private study. His early years were devoted 
assiduously to his business and to his studies, 
and his attention having been concentrated on 
natural history, and especially on the study of 
shells, he withdrew in 1867 from business in 
order to devote himself solely to his favorite 
pursuit. A man of untiring energy and perse- 
verance, he soon became eminent in this do- 
main of science. His first paper was published 
in the proceedings of the Academy of Natural 
Sciences for 1881, under the title “‘On the 
Mollusca of Harper’s Ferry, Virginia”? In 
1865 he established the “American Journal of 
Conchology,”’ of which seven annual volumes 
were issued. ‘To this, and to the proceedings 
of the Academy he contributed numerous pa- 
pers, numbering at the end of 1873 no less than 
64 contributions to this favorite science, all show- 
ing characteristic accuracy of detail and patient 
research. In addition to these papers he also 
issued a bibliography of American Writers on 
Conchology in 1861; a “ Monograph of the 
Fresh Water Univalve Mollusca of the United 
States,’ in continuation of Haldeman’s work 
on the same subject; a “Synonymy of the 
Species of Strepomatide,” in 1865; a ‘“* Mono- 
graph of the Terrestrial Mollusca inhabiting 
the United States,’’ 1866; an “American Ma- 
rine Conchology,” 1873; the third volume of 
the ‘‘Land and Fresh Water Shells of the 
United States,”’ published by the Smithsonian 
Institution, and a “ Structural and Systematic 
Conchology,” in two volumes, issued in 1883. 
The latter is a magniflcent work, profusely il- 
lustrated, but was only preliminary to the 
crowning work of his life, which, unhappily, 
he has been unable to finish, This was his 
* Manual of Conchology, Structural and Syste- 
matic,” of which the first volume appeared in 
1879, and of which nine volumes of the first 
series, on marine shells, and three of the sec- 
ond, on land she'ls, have been issued. It is no 
exaggeration to say that this is the most exten- 
sive systematic work on any branch of natural 
science which has yet appeared in the United 
States. The amount of labor involved in the 
preparation of such a monograph can only be 
appreciated by those familiar with the vast 
collections at the Academy of Natural 
Sciences, which formed its basis and 
the ever-increasing literature of con- 
chology, with which it had to keep pace. 
Four lithographic artists and ten or twelve col- 
orists were constantly engaged in the prepara- 
tion of the beautiful illustrative plates, while 
the author’s entire time was devoted with in- 
defatigable industry in the preparation of the 
regularly issued text. The reliability of the 
work was at once recognized on the appearance 
of the first number, and it is gratifying to be 
able to states that the enterprise met with an 
encouragment which was most gratifying to the 
author, and stimulated him to continual 
exertion, 
But his literary industry did not prevent him 
from serving the Academy of Natural Sciences 
in many other ways. Elected a member of the 
Academy in June, 1859, he was conservator of 
the Conchological Section from the latter’s 
formation in 1866, and was Secretary of the 
