SANGUINOLITES TUMIDUS. 405 



tumidus, but curiously enough he saw fit to subdivide Phillips's species, consider- 

 ing that the specimens from BoUand and Ireland must be different. On what 

 reasonable grounds he did so it is impossible to conceive, when the description 

 was so meagre, only one figure had been given, and the type specimen had been 

 lost. The following is a translation of his remarks on his species 8. suhplicatus : — 

 *' It seems to me to be very probable that this species is identical with that which 

 is found in BoUand, Yorkshire, which Prof. Phillips has described under the name 

 Sanguinolaria ? tumida, and which he identified with an Irish species resembling 

 it, but which is very distinct. This figure has been taken from the latter, and the 

 proposed name should be given to it." Such a method of dealing with the work 

 of previous writers is, of course, quite unwarrantable in the absence of any 

 evidence from actual specimens ; the more so when the new species seems to be 

 founded upon a single imperfect specimen. The evidence of the text goes to show 

 that de Koniuck was not acquainted with the shell from BoUand ; for, under the 

 heading " Localities," he says, " This species {8. siibplicatus) is rare in the 

 Carboniferous Limestone of Vise, etage III; it is probable that it exists also in 

 limestone of the same age at Bolland, Yorkshire." The italics are mine. In the 

 remarks on 8. tumidus he says, " Having occasion of comparing at Dublin the 

 Belgian with the Irish specimens which are generally referred to the species 

 described by Phillips, I have no doubt of their identity." He goes on to indicate 

 the differential diagnosis between this species and his 8. subplicatus ; but, as he 

 was so doubtful of the occurrence even of that shell in Bolland, this must have 

 been derived from his observations on Belgian shells. DeKoninck's type of /S\ sub- 

 plicatus is very imperfect and altogether crushed out of shape, and is certainly 

 not accurately represented by the figure, for I happen to possess a plaster-of-Paris 

 cast of the original specimen, made for me by the kindness of Prof. Dupout, and I 

 have come to the conclusion that the shell is only the cast of a very large and 

 fully grown example of 8. tricostatus. 



The reason for such a subdivision of Phillips's species is probably to be found 

 in de Koninck's anxiety to prove his contention as to the exact zonal distribution 

 of all the Carboniferous Limestone fossils of Belgium. He says that S. subplicatus 

 occurs in etage III of Vise only, and 8. tumidus in etage II of Waulsort and 

 Anseremme. He states that Millicent, co. Cork, is Middle Carboniferous, but 

 Bolland belongs to the upper stage, a correlation which the distribution of the 

 Lamellibranchs does not favour ; but it is easy to understand that, having laid down 

 the law that each of the Carboniferous Lamellibranchs of Belgium was strictly 

 limited to its own stage, he should apply the same argument to British Carbonifer- 

 ous horizons ; and hence, necessarily, Phillips's species (which, by the way, did 

 not come from Millicent) must be a different one from that which occurred in 

 Bolland. 



