172 History of Conchology in the United States. 
Dr. Gould has been lately engaged on the Mollusca of the 
North Pacific Expedition—short diagnoses of species appearing 
in the numbers of the Boston “Proceedings, to be followed at 
ane future time by the publication of an elaborate Government 
eport. 
When the State of Massachusetts added a Zoological Depart 
ment to their Geological Survey, to Dr. Gould fortunately was 
assigned the Invertebrata of the State, comprising the Mollusca, 
Annelida, and Radiata. The result of his investigations appeared 
in a thick octavo volume published in 1841. This work is dis- 
tinguished for the critical accuracy of its descriptions, and has 
become a standard authority on our marine shells, of which it 
describes many new species, While it is the first work embody- 
ing the complete molluscous fauna of any portion of our coun: 
try, it still remains the best. 
Dr. was chosen by the executors of the will of Dr. 
Amos Binney, to edit the work on the “ Terrestrial Mollusks, 
which was left incomplete by the death of that author, This 
labor he performed with great skill and judgment. The illus- 
trations were continued in the same magnificent style as they 
were commenced under the direction of Dr. Binney, and the lit 
erary contents are augmented by descriptions of many new spe 
cies discovered prior to the publication of the third volume, a 
the commencement of which they are inserted. Dr. Gould has 
also contributed to the first volume, a valuable memoir of Dr. 
Binney. Dr. Gould is an accurate and critical observer and 
describer of natural objects. His pages exhibit to the eye the 
individuality of his subject with the same clear analytical pre 
cision with which it impressed his own mind. He has beet 
very successful in his investigations, adding nearly one thousand 
species to the recent Mollusca. : 
Jo . ANTHONY, of Cincinnati, has for years devoted his 
attention to the study of the Melanians of the United States; 
nd he has divided with Mr. Lea the honor of working up the 
many species of this interesting family. 
Mr. Anthony’s principal papers pac one in the Boston Pro 
ceedings, vol. iii, describing sixteen species of Melania, one 1? 
the New York Lyceum Annals, vol. vi, April 1854, deseribin 
fifty species collected by himself in the Southern States, as 
another in the Proceedings of the Philadelphia Academy, Fe 
1860, describing fifty-eight species. 3 
S.S. Hatpeman. Our fluviatile Gasteropoda, other than oe 
lanian, are best known through Prof. Haldeman’s “‘ MonograP 
of the Limniades, and other fresh water univalve shells of Nor 
America,” published in eight numbers—1840-44, The desct!P” 
tions of species in this work are very full, and admirably illus 
