334 TRANSACTIONS OF THE WAGNER FREE 



in the way it was proposed (unless in case of an obvious misprint not due to 

 the author), I should be inclined in the present instance, if it were necessary, 

 to waive that very wholesome rule. However, a careful study of the synonymy 

 above given will show that there is no occasion for discussing Montfort's " mis- 

 fit " name any further. 



If it were not for Martini's name, it is very likely that the name Biiliiims 

 Scopoli would have to be adopted for this genus. The subject is of sufficient 

 interest to be worth a short discussion here. To begin at the beginning, so 

 far as Bidimus is concerned, Adanson in 1757 (Hist. Nat. du Senegal, p. 5) 

 proposed a " genus " Le Bulin, Bulimis, choosing this name because, after 

 the death of the animal, its shell floats like a " petite bulla d'air transparent." 

 This creature, as is well known from Adanson's description and figure, is a 

 fresh-water mollusk belonging to the Limnaidce and having two tentacles, 

 with the eyes on the front of the head near their inner bases. Adanson was 

 a good naturalist, but did not adopt the Linnean nomenclature, and his book 

 was published before the tenth edition of the Systema Naturae, so he is not 

 entitled to be quoted in binomial nomenclature, whatever his merits in other 

 respects — a fact which has been frequently ignored. 



In 1777 Johannes Ant. Scopoli, a distinguished naturalist of Prague, pub- 

 lished a Latin Introduction to Natural History (pp. 542, 8vo ; publisher, W. 

 Gerle), which contains not only the Linnean genera, which he adopted, but 

 a number of new ones due to himself and other naturalists, including Adan- 

 son and Klein, several of whose genera 'are here first brought into harmony 

 with the binomial system of nomenclature. Due credit is given to these 

 authors by Scopoli {op. cit. p. 387), who (p. 392) thus defines the genus 

 Bidimus, number 64 of his list: 



" Bjdimiis Adans. Testa univalvis, non umbilicata ; apertura ovali. 

 MoUuscuvi tentaculis binis, basiappendiculatis ; puncto ophthalmoide distincto 

 aut radicali." 



He then refers to Swammerdam's Bibel der Natur, tab. ix. fig. 4, which 

 represents Vivipara fasciata, or the species so called by Martini, presumably 

 as an illustration of the anatomical characteristics of Bulinms. He gives as 

 examples : Helix (now Sticcined) putris, H. {Lim7tcBd) fragilis and stagnalis 

 and H. (now Bythinia) tentacidata, all Linnean species. He adds that there 

 are not a few other terrestrial species, and that Pedipes of Adanson differs 

 from Bulimus by having its aperture denticulate. 



This is the first publication of Buliimis, and is perfectly regular and suffi- 

 cient in every respect. Nothing is said of Bulinus Adanson, and the only 

 reason for supposing that Bidimus is a revised form of Bidinus lies in the fact 

 that the diagnosis would be applicable to both, and in the similarity of spelling. 



The fundamental fact in this connection is that BidimtiS; by the rules of 

 nomenclature, as well as common sense, cannot be applied to the land pulmo- 

 nates with four tentacles and distal eyes on the major pair, with which it has 



