MELVILL: BRITISH PIONEERS IN GONCHOLOGICAL SCIENCE. 215 



in February, 1859. The establishment of genera Myochama 

 and Cleidotharns {Chainostrea) we owe to him. 



It was also in 1844 that Mr. Thomas Brown published 

 " Illustrations of the Recent Conchology of Great Britain and 

 Ireland," (1848), followed by the fossil representatives four years 

 later. 



Mr. Sylvanus Hanley, our accomplished President for last 

 year, has during his long life contributed many important papers 

 and treatises on the Mollusca, amongst which are — " Illustrated 

 and Descriptive Catalogue of Recent Bivalve Shells," London, 

 1842 — 56, with figures of 960 species. Many of the types of 

 these are in Mr. Hanley's collection. "Ipsa Linngei Conchylia," 

 I.innseus' shell-types, determined from his MSS., London, 1855, 

 and we have already mentioned his "History of British Mollusca" 

 in conjunction with Prof Forbes. 



Mr. J. P. Dalyell produced about this time two large and 

 elaborate works on Scotch Natural History, viz. " Rare and 

 Remarkable Animals of Scotland (Mollusca and Vermes), 

 2 vols., 1847, 1848, quarto, with no coloured plates; and 

 " The Power of the Creator in Ordaining Life among the 

 Humbler Tribes of Animated Nature " (Crustacea, Mollusca, 

 and Vermes of Scotland), 3 vols., 1851 — 1858, quarto, with 

 142 coloured plates. 



In 1848 Mr. Joshua Alder published a Catalogue of the 

 Mollusca of Northumberland, and, in company with Mr. Albany 

 Hancock, undertook the arduous task of producing that standard 

 work, " Monograph of British Nudibranchiate Mollusca," with 

 figures of all the species, 1845 — 1855, on which the fame of 

 the authors will chiefly rest, ]:)ublished by the Ray Society. 



Contemporary with Mr. Alder was Mr. W. Bean of Scar- 

 borough, who amassed an important collection of British Shells, 

 Rissoa beanii was named in his honour. 



Mr. John Samuel Gaskoin, born in September, 1790, 

 entered the medical profession, and in 1823 was appointed 

 surgeon in ordinary to George IV. at Brighton, and in 1830 the 



