271 



in this generous offer that exalted love of science which has always 

 guided him. For we must say that Mr. Cuming is not only the zealous 

 collector who has had the liierit of bringing together the most ex- 

 tensive collection of recent shells in existence, but that, whilst adhering 

 faithfully to the rule he has imposed upon himself, to write nothing 

 himself on Conchology, he has exercised notwithstanding for the last 

 five and thirty years the most favourable influence upon that science. 



Whilst on his long and arduous travels, Mr. Cuming has often 

 gathered precious observations on the habits of the Molluscous ani- 

 mals, their localities, the various depths of the sea they live in, and 

 the nature of the bottoms they prefer. These observations, commu- 

 nicated without reserve to authors, have become part and parcel of 

 science, and have shown to other investigators that such an example 

 should be followed, in order to obtain in time competent notions of 

 the geographical distribution of molluscous animals. 



This knowledge, in its infancy and still imperfect, will become of the 

 last importance to Geology and Palseontology, when the distribution 

 of beings existing during past geological periods comes to be com- 

 pared with that of those we now witness ; for already the first attempt 

 of Forbes shows the interest attached to these questions, to illustrate 

 which the observations of Mr. Cuming have been of such great 

 value. 



Adanson, in 1/57, in his 'Voyage to Senegal,' instituted the 

 genus Terebra, to include those species which Linnaeus afterwards 

 included in his genus Buccinum. It is true that Adanson's genus 

 brought together two very distinct forms of moUusks ; one group 

 belonging to true Buccinum, and to be comprehended within that 

 genus ; whilst the other contains species which have been considered 

 by Brugiere and Lamarck as typical of the genus Terebra, and this 

 genus, so reconstituted, has been recognized by all naturalists. 



Notwithstanding this unanimity with respect to the genus, an 

 attempt has been made by Schumacher and supported by Blainville, 

 to make an alteration in its constitution. Schumacher, in fact, pro- 

 poses to give the name Terebra to the bucciniform species, and to call 

 the others by a new generic name re-formed by Brugiere and Lamarck. 

 This change might have been brought about if, during the time of 

 Adanson, the genus Buccinum had not been established by Linnaeus, 

 since which period it has only been necessary to embrace under it 

 the two species erroneously referred to Bueemumhj Adanson, and 

 in this way the genus becomes naturally constituted. 



The nomenclature of Brugiere and Lamarck ought therefore to be 

 retained. The inutility of the genus Subula of Schumacher is in 

 this manner demonstrated. 



Heeding but little the nomenclature established before his time, 

 Humphrey, a man remarkable for the sagacity he has shown in an 

 Essay on the classification of shells, callediXc?j?^^A£t!J['H''**^i'f?'\^'^'l 

 proposed the name of Acus for the true Terebra of AcTanson and 

 Brugiere. 



No one had dreamt of this genus till the Messrs. Adams recently 

 attempted to establish it in their work intituled ' The Genera of 



