On the Characters of Astele. 37 



ralists whose ideas are not chained down to the adoption of old 

 genera only, and who content themselves with merely study- 

 ing specific differences. But it may be as well to remind 

 dissentients from modern classification, that new objects 

 create new ideas, and that new ideas require new combina- 

 tions of terms and words to express them. This, in truth, 

 is why new divisions (under whatever name they may be 

 called) are found to be absolutely necessary. Were it 

 otherwise, the Systema Naturce of the immortal Swede 

 should still be the text-book of the Zoologist, and the 

 genera of Lamarck should be termed superfluous. 



In no department of nature is the adaptation of our systems 

 to the advanced state of knowledge become more imperative 

 than in the elucidation of the Testaceous Molluscee. The 

 number of species discovered since the days of Linneeus 

 are probably as 1 to 60, and every day fresh novelties are 

 coming to light, requiring new divisions, new names, and 

 new alterations in our system to make these novelties 

 intelligible. 



It is in vain, therefore, that a futile attempt has been made 

 in England to arrange new objects under old names,* so that 

 the Lamarckian genera may be made to contain anything and 

 almost every thing. It is as vain, I repeat, to attempt to 

 bring us back in these days to the infancy of science as for 

 Mrs. Partington with her broom to stop the advance of the 

 Atlantic. 



I have been led into these remarks as introductory to the 



definition of a new form of the Trochidse, discovered by Dr. 



Milligan on the east coast of Tasmania, and of which he 



was only fortunate enough to procure a single specimen. 



On a cursory glance it has every appearance of belonging to 



the beautiful genus Calliostoma ; f the spire being nearly as 



* Conchologia Systematica. London, 1841. 

 t Treatise on Malacology, p. 351. 



