JOURNAL OF CONCHOLOGY 32 1 



ON THE ARTICLE PURPURA IN TRYON'S 

 'MANUAL OF CONCHOLOGY.' 



By ALFRED HANDS COOKE, M.A., 



Museum of Zoology and Comparative Anatomy, Cambridge. 



(Read before the Conchological Society, February ist, 1S88.) 



Mr. Tryon's ' Manual of Conchology ' has been received by 

 the scientific world with the respect due to so great a work. 

 The man who attempts* so herculean a task as to figure and 

 describe every known shell, deserves the gratitude of all students 

 of conchology. Yet, without in the least detracting from the 

 acknowledgements due to the distinguished author of the 

 volumes, the opinion may safely be expressed that, in all proba- 

 bility, the work would have been better done had it been en- 

 trusted to more hands. So far as I have at present observed, 

 out of eight volumes that have appeared, only part of one (the 

 Cyprffiidse) is the work of a collaborator. A practical student 

 of shells is apt to become convinced that a prolonged study is 

 insufficient to master the problems connected with even a single 

 genus ; how much more must this be the case with the mono- 

 grapher of all the known genera ? It was inevitable, therefore, 

 at the outset, that Mr. Tryon's work should be, in a certain 

 sense, a failure, simply because he attempted single-handed a 

 task which might well have occupied the brains and energies of 

 fifty men. 



Although several of what may be called congratulatory 

 notices of the work have appeared — notably those by Kobelt in 

 the ' Jahb. der Malak. Gesellsch.', by M. Crosse in the 'Journal 

 de Conchyliologie,' and by an author in the ' Journal of Con- 

 chology ' — nothing in the way of detailed criticism by students 



* Since this paper was written, the news of the lamented death of 

 Mr. Tryon has reached us. It has been thought best to make no alterations 

 in a criticism of what every student must know to be a very difficult piece of 

 work. 



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