l6 JOURNAL OF CONCHOLOGY, VOL. I4, NO. I, JANUARY, iqij. 



may say, established the generic names of Viviparus for Faludina, 

 of Paludestrina for Hydrobia, of Vitiea for Zoniies, Aciciila for Acme, 

 and CcecilioiJes for Cionella or Achatitia. 



It would be simply ludicrous if I attempted to give you a scientific 

 address comparable in any degree to those of most of my predecessors; 

 but as my delight has been to introduce children and working-men 

 to the study of the shells of their neighbourhood, and then of their 

 native land, it seemed to me that, bearing them, and not scientists, 

 in mind, I might do a useful work by extending their interest and 

 knowledge of the objects of their pursuit by letting them know the 

 meaning of the names they have to use — which are entirely taken 

 from two languages, of which most of them know nothing. Quite 

 recently I had a fascinated small student who, when I found 

 Cyciostoma, called it cyclometer, but when I repeated the name and 

 gave its meaning his intelligence advanced, whereas otherwise only 

 his memory would be burdened. It will not, however, be a mere 

 glossary or list of meanings which I shall essay, since' history is 

 sometimes wrapped up in appellations, or valuable faunistic informa- 

 tion given. To those who know more than I do as conchologists 

 this paper will be useless ; but they will bear with it for the sake of 

 those who, as beginners, know less, and are sometimes even repelled 

 at first by having to remember names which they can neither 

 understand nor always pronounce. Help them to understand, and 

 from their ranks will the more surely come those who will emulate, 

 and even surpass, the teachers of to-day. 



I take, therefore, our Society's Name List of 1904, for which we 

 are mainly indebted to Mr. B. B. Woodward, and I translate, 

 interpret, and in some cases comment on, all the names therein given. 

 - All our British non-marine shells belong to two great classes. 

 Gastropoda and Pelecypoda, the former being univalves, the latter 

 bivalves. Gastropoda means stomach-footed, because on the ventral 

 side of the body a sole-like disc or foot exists, by the wavelike 

 expansions and contractions of which the animal progresses. We 

 begin with the division Fiihnonata, i.e., those breathing air, or 

 obtaining oxygen by means of a lung or air sac. 



Of these the first division is that of Stylomviatophora, i.e., bearing 

 their eyes on or near the tips of their tentacles. 



The first family on our list is that of TestacellidcB, represented by 

 the single genus Testacella. Testa is Latin for a shell, testacella s. 

 little shell, a name given by Cuvier in 1800, because this slug bears a 

 small external shell. Its species tmnigei was first found at Teneriffe, 

 by M. Mauge. Its var. viridans means greenish. The second 

 species haliotidea means having a shell in the tSea, or form, of the 



