' The American Naturalist [January, 



Pilsbry, 1892. | Baker, 1895. 



" For several years the writer I " For several years the writer 

 has been accumulating data bear- I has been accumulating data bear- 

 ing upon the natural classifica- ing upon the natural classifica- 

 tion of the Helicoid land snails- tion of the Gastropod family 

 It has been thought desirable to Muricidje. It has been thought 

 place before students of this desirable to place before students 

 group some of the general results some of the results elucidated, 

 attained, and to invite their and to invite their friend lv critic- 

 friendly criticism, ism. 



" * * * the author's aim | " The author's aim in the pres- 

 being simply to place before mal- j entpaper has been simply to place 

 acologists the outlines of a classi- \ before malacologists the outline 

 fication essentially modern and of a classification essentially mod- 



essentially original." 1 | era and essentially original." 



1 The above quotation is from Pilsbry's Preliminary Outline of a New Classifica- 

 tion of the Helices, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci., Phila., 1892, p. 387. Good taste should 

 have forbidden the reproduction by Mr. B. of the second paragraph here quoted, 



to the 1892 publication. This excuse seems to be lacking in the caL'o^Mr" 

 Baker's paper. 



More to the same effect might be quoted, but the above is sufficient 

 on this score. 



We do not wish to imply that there is any great harm in using bor- 

 rowed phrases ; they are not copyrighted, and their original author 

 probably does not expect to make use of the same sentences again ; but, 

 still, if anybody has ideas worth expression, they surely ought to be 

 worthy of fresh verbiage. 



In regard to Baker's subfamilies, we do not see that they differ from 

 those of Tryon and Fischer, except that Baker includes Coralliopkila 

 and its allies as a third subfamily. As this group lacks teeth, it seems 

 much better to treat it as a family. In this connection it may be well 

 to state that La\iaxis mawce is not a monstrosity as Baker's foot-note 

 (p. 188) would seem to imply. 



The diagnoses of subfamilies given are rather absurd in view of their 

 contents, which contradict every word of the descriptions. Not all the 

 genera placed in ** Muricince" have spinous or foliated varices, not all 

 have the nucleus of operculum apical, and not all have few cusps on 

 the rhachidian teeth. What is the use, then, of such a " subfamily ? " 

 Among the genera we notice, on a cursory inspection, that Mttrex 

 tenuispina Lamarck is quoted as type of Murex Linne. How can 



