and Shells of Massachusetts Bay. 77 
sidering the latter as new, is the last clause of Cuvier’s 
description, * ore quadri-lamelloso." These lamelle are 
figured as two tufted projections on each side of the 
head, which are doubtless cervical branchie, contracted 
by the spirits. Ours, however, has three of these appen- 
dages on each side, and we must consequently either 
suppose the illustrious naturalist, who dissected the ani- 
mal with great care, to have been singularly negligent in 
this peculiar portion of its organization, or consider ours 
to be a distinct species. This may be the more safely 
assumed, as he observes the plates were drawn by him- 
self, with the express intention of having, what did not 
previously exist, a figure of the animal which could be 
relied on for the accuracy of its details. 
Lamarck, in his generic description, states that the 
Tritonie have two eyes, without however, mentioning 
their position. For more than two months, with upward 
of one hundred specimens for examination, I vainly at- 
tempted to discover these organs; unless two whitish 
points at the extremity of the tentacule are to be con- 
sidered as such, which, to say the least, is very doubtful. 
Rang, who usually observes very closely, makes no 
allusion to the eyes of this animal, in his, * Manuel des 
Mollusques ;” and my own observations induce a belief 
that they are deficient, and their place supplied by the 
delicately constructed respiratory apparatus, which un- 
questionably fulfils the double office of branchie and 
tentacule. I have frequently held my finger within 
a quarter of an inch of them while crawling about, yet 
never produced any of that alarm, which most creatures 
endowed with sight exhibit, at such proximity of a 
strange body ; while at the slightest contact, they con- 
tracted their whole body, folded the foot oasi and 
sunk as if lifeless to the bottom. 4 
