MORSE: OBSERVATIONS ON LAMELLIBRANCHS. 143 
shell alone. A most arbitrary and unsatisfactory attempt and 
inexcusable too, when such multitudes of living specimens are 
so near at hand. Let it stand Melania I say until some character 
of the moUusk can be shown to authorize sub-divisions." 
Professor Edward L. Rice, President of the Ohio Academy of 
Science, in an address before that Society, in dealing with system- 
atic zoology and nomenclature refers to the enormous increase in 
the number of species since the days of Linnaeus who knew only 
4000 animal species. Within recent years the estimate of the 
number of known species of animals has reached 522,400. He 
then says, "And with this enormous complex each tyro has been 
at liberty to trifle; it is hke turning a child loose in the card 
catalogue of the library across the street. No wonder that a 
friend should exclaim in cynical disgust that he has given up 
the scientific nomenclature in favor of popular names on the 
ground that the latter are more definite and less confused. " 
The Anatomical Society of Great Britain and Ireland decided 
by a unanimous vote that it saw no reason for departing from the 
old nomenclature in favor of the new or Basle terminology. 
Professor Keith in the British Medical Journal in protesting 
against the Basle terminolog}^ quoted as his text, Deuteronomy, 
xxvii: 17, ''Cursed be he that removeth his neighbor's land- 
marks: and all the people shall say. Amen." 
In this memoir I have described and figured the expanded 
animal of 48 species of New England lamellibranchs. If they all 
had common names I should certainly use them. I want the 
student to be able to turn to an accurate figure of the species 
without regard to its latest name, so I have referred to the second 
edition of Gould's Report on the Invertebrata of Massachusetts, 
edited by W. G. Binney, 1870, in which wood-cuts are given of 
every species mentioned. These figures have been widely copied 
or reprinted from the original electrotypes. Rarely, however, 
is credit given to the author of these drawings. Professor 
Verrill in his Report on the Invertebrate Animals of Vineyard 
Sound, uses 196 of these figures and gives full credit to the 
draughtsman. Now this Report being a Government one, may 
be found in all the public hbraries. Gould-Binney's Inverte- 
brata is also a State Report and is equally accessible to the stu- 
