242 MARSHALL : ADDITIONS TO 'BRITISH CONCHOLOGY.' 



and necessary changes to meet the just claims and recognition 

 of others. Moreover, I do not think it advisable to advocate 

 changes so sweeping as would result in their being ignored 

 altogether. 



I think it unfortunate, to say the least, that a new list of 

 the Land and Freshwater MoUusca should have been recently 

 issued under the authority of the Conchological Society, involv- 

 ing innumerable changes and unnecessary additions, without 

 any apparent consideration being given to the question whether 

 those changes would commend themselves generally to the large 

 body of members, and were likely to be followed or not. Old 

 collectors are certainly not likely to disorganise their collections 

 in so wholesale a manner, with the apprehension that, before 

 they have finished, another list may be compiled superseding 

 the present one, and containing as many or even more changes. 



This has been done, too, simultaneously with the publica- 

 tion of a Revised List by Dr. Norman, the President of the 

 Society, the changes in which should have been sufficient to 

 satisfy any reformer; but this would not matter so much were 

 they decently in accord, instead of being, as they are, consider- 

 ably at variance both in arrangement and in nomenclature. 



Again, immediately after this 'Official List' in the Journal, 

 appears another 'Revised List' of Slugs, in which a promise (or 

 should I say a threat ?) is held out that the writer's ' researches 

 have led to some opinions different from those usually held, and 

 if correct will necessitate a considerable revision of the nomen- 

 clature.' Now, where is all this to stop ? It is time to speak 

 plainly. We have our standard authorities to go by, and these 

 should be loyally followed until superseded by a successor, ex- 

 cept in cases which are obviously wrong. The nomenclature of 

 the land and freshwater moUusca has been getting into a 

 chaotic state for several years past, which the new list rather 

 aggravates, and I think pains should rather have been taken to 

 bring matters back to a sounder basis, than to repel by a be- 

 wildering confusion. 



J.C, vii., Oct. 1893. 



