12 CARBONICOLA, ANTHRACOMYA, AND NAIADITES. 



§ II. CRITICAL BIBLIOGRAPHY. 



The literature of this subject, though scattered, is fairly extensive ; but 

 unfortunately authors have worked independently, and not consulted previous 

 writings : and this fault is much more marked amongst the Continental 

 palaeontologists, some of whom, writing within the last thirty years, have ignored 

 all the work done in Great Britain ; and, failing to grasp the number of varietal 

 forms which the shells under notice are capable of assuming, have described each 

 small variation as typical of a different species. 



1720. The earliest literary trace of these Coal-measure shells that I am able to 

 discover goes back as far as 1720, in a work entitled 'Memorabilia Saxionige 

 Subterraniae," by G. F. Myles, published at Leipzig, a work of high artistic and 

 palaeontographical value in the accuracy and detail of its many plates of fossil 

 plants and prehistoric remains. Only one plate, however, refers to the subject of 

 the present memoir, pi. xxvi, figs. 1, 9, 10, with a short description at p. 39, 

 which I here transcribe. The quaint mingling of Latin and German, and reference 

 to the Unio-like character of the fossils, are of interest : 



Fig. 1. " Patellae seu conchas pictoriae werden darum die auf diesen Stein sie 

 praesenterenden Muschelen genennt, weil sie der Mahler gar sehn zu gebrauchen 

 pflegen, daher sie auch in L. 17, ff. de instr. et instrum. leg. als instrumenta 

 pictorum angeschen werden. Nicht weniger finden sich auf diesen Stein noch 

 eine Art, welche Dactyli, germ. Kanel-Nagel, oder Finger-Muscheln und Schalen 

 heissen, deren Plinius, Lib. 9, cap. 61, gedenckt." 



Fig. 8. " Die Muschel so allhier sich zeiget, ist gleichfals mit dem sub. fig. 1, 

 erwehnten Dactylis zu vergleichen immassen auch die Selb." 



Fig. 10. " In copia communicerten denen Patellis f. conchis pictoris, obschon 

 nicht in dergleichen Grosse, iiber einkommen." 



The former two figures refer to Garbonicola, the latter evidently to Naiadites. 

 It is interesting to note in this earliest account the occurrence of these two 

 genera together, and the reference of these fossils to Unio. It will be seen that 

 the older writers on this subject were all of this opinion, and many Continental 

 authors have continued to hold this view. 



1793. From 1720 to 1793 I can find no mention of Coal-measure shells; but 

 in that year the Rev. David Ure published his ' Natural History of Rutherglen,' 

 a lasting testimony to his acuteness of observation and scientific mind. He 

 describes certainly one shell now referred to Garbonicola, and possibly four. He 

 says, p. 311, " The marble in Rutherglen . . . abounds in mussels. . . . 

 Some entire specimens are enveloped in till" (? marl). He figures a specimen, 

 pi. xvi, fig. 4, which has the appearance of the Carbonicola aquilina of later authors ; 



