210 MELVILL: BRITISH PIONEERS IN CONCHOLOGICAL SCIENCE. 



designations, not having access to Conrad's work, so confusion 

 has hecome worse confounded. The Rev. P. P. Carpenter has 

 striven, with some success, to elucidate this mass of difficulties. 

 Mr. Nuttall, who was at one time Professor of Natural History 

 in Harvard Universit}', Cambridge, U.S.A., died on September 

 loth, 1859, aged 73. 



In 1834 Mr. R. Grant wrote a paper " On the Anatoni)' of 

 the Sepiflla vi/lgarts {Loligopsis) with descriptions of two new 

 species." 



Mr. W. Thompson in 1835 gave the results of his studies on 

 the " Teredo navalis and Limnoria terebrans'''' on the coasts of 

 the British Islands, followed, a few years later, with the " Cata- 

 logue of the Land and Freshwater MoUusca of Ireland," 1840. 



Mr. William Swainson, born Oct. 8th, 1789, travelled in 

 early life in the Mediterranean, and explored Sicily for eight 

 years, also visiting Greece and Italy. In 18 15 he retired upon 

 half-pay, and devoted the rest of his life to travelling and study- 

 ing Natural History. The following year he visited Brazil, 

 obtaining from thence a store of treasures which formed the 

 nucleus of the material described in a periodical started by him 

 in 1820, entitled " Zoological Illustrations," and shortly after- 

 wards another called " Exotic Conchology," the plates for which 

 he lithographed himself. He edited the treatise on "Shells and 

 Shell-fish " in " Lardner's Cabinet Cyclopaedia," and a few years 

 later the " Elements of Conchology, for the use of Students and 

 Travellers." About 1840 he emigrated to New Zealand, and in 

 1 85 1 visited Sydney, returning soon afterwards to New Zealand. 

 He died Dec. 7th, 1855, aged 66. He described many species 

 of shells, paying considerable attention to the genus Mitra,\YXOte. 

 a monograph of the germs Ancillaria, treated of "The characters 

 of Achatinella, a new genus of Terrestrial Shells," and " On 

 Iridina, a genus of Freshwater Bivalve Shells," besides many 

 papers on Ornithology. His collection formed the principal 

 portion of the old Manchester Museum, the nucleus of that 

 lately transferred to Owens College. 



J.C, vi,, Apr., iSgo. 



