
P 6 January 1978 No. 238 NEW YORK SHELL CLUB Norns 
age 
October 21, 1977. The article follows: 
'WATCHCLAMS' SUGGESTED TO CHECK MINOR OIL SPILLS 
FAIRBANKS, Alaska -- A tiny Cees ae e pre ak oe > ohn 
tline of the United States cou ser 
en i spills, a University of Alaska researcher says. 
He says the fingernail-sized clam burrows to the surface of the 
silty mud in which it lives when it is under stress. 
The clam, Macoma balthica (Linnaeus, 1758), came to the surface when 
j a tid i ting of oil so 
scientists covered tidelands near Valdez with a coa 
thin that it was invisible, said David Shaw of the university's 
Institute of Marine Science. 
: ~f t 
The environmental chemist said in an interview that the clam's reac- 
tion to stress could be extremely valuable in detecting a buildup 
of oil in areas near industrial activity and oil tanker shipping 
lanes. 
"You could have a little plot to keep an eye on," he said. "When 
the animals begin to show this behavior, that's a sign, ‘Aha, some- 
thing may be going on. Now it's time to really start looking close- 
ly with analytical chemical tools.'" 
Shaw said the clam is found along the western coast of the United 
States from Alaska south to mid-California and on eastern and west- 
ern shores of the North Atlantic. 

DISCORD IN PARADISE 
Morris K. Jacobson 
In 1857 the British malacologist William Turton in his interesting 
MANUAL OF THE LAND AND FRESH-WATER SHELLS OF THE BRITISH ISLANDS 
Pointed out an unusual evil he discovered while doing studies for 
his book. On p. 292 ff. he listed a large number of names of spe- 
cies which he had found listed as coming from the British Islands 
but which he doubted actually appeared there. He states his griev- 
ance as follows: 
"Several of these (species) have doubtless been introduced, by mis- 
take for some other nearly allied British species; and others have 
been described from specimens which have accidentally intermixed 
with British shells in the cabinets of careless collectors; but it is 
also to be feared that some have been wilfully palmed upon us by un- 
principled persons, who wished to gain credit for their discovery, 
and to enrich their cabinets with foreign species, for which they, at 
the same time, coined British habitats, sometimes not even consistent 
with their proper station. It is curious that the persons who have 
been most addicted to such practices often overreached themselves; 
for not Satisfied with adding to the Fauna species which, from their 
geographical distribution might possibly be found in our island, 
without heeding that these must at onc 
when their true locality became new. Se :9eSnemnetiany, oe Sete 
Some of the shells listed by these " i 
: unprincipled" persons are (I list 
the modern name): Subulina octona, Bulimulus exilis, Detracia bulla- 
Oides, T i is, Neritina v wivea ett ; 
wees: Iralia pusilis, Neritina virginea etc. Mr. Turton concludes: 
us I have fe 
er than 54 Spedicg called on to exclude from our Faune no few- 
