NEW YORK SHELL CLUB NOTES No. 248 January 1979 Page 1 
The NEW YORK SHELL CLUB meets on the second Sunday of each month, 
September through June, in 
ROOM 426, AMERICAN MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY 
NEXT MEETING: SUNDAY, JANUARY 14, 1979, at 2:00 p.m. 
PROGRAM: CONFESSIONS OF A DRAMALACOLOGIST: A DECADE 
OF SHELL CLUB INVOLVEMENT by Mart Hulswit 
HAPPY NEW YEAR 

CONTENTS 
Page 
Highlights of the November Meeting Milton Werner 1 
Shell Giants Earl H. Reed 2 
Ruth H. Fair (Obituary) 4 
Medicine and a Marine Invertebrate Frederick C. Pearson III 
(Limulus polyphemus) extracts from MARITIMES 4 
Discord in Paradise, or Where Angels 
Fear to Tread (Conus crocatus Robert H. Janowsky 5 

HIGHLIGHTS OF THE NOVEMBER MEETING 
President Bill Walkwitz announced the recent death, at an advanced 
age, of member Gordon Usticke, eliciting reminiscent comments by 
Nick Katsaras and others present. 
Bill also announced that the second edition of AMERICAN MALACOLO- 
GISTS is now in preparation, and that forms were on hand for any 
who might wish to be listed in it. 
Milton Werner noted that Dr. Dorothea Franzen, of Illinois Wesleyan 
University, Bloomington, Illinois, would appreciate the loan of 
Succinea specimens, especially Catinella, for study. 
Attention was drawn to the small terrarium on the front table which 
held about two dozen specimens of Eobania vermiculata Muller, prog- 
eny of escargots from the Mediterranean which had been purchased at 
a toca! food market. Marie Sussman had kept notes on the progress 
of specimens through two or three generations. She offered to lend 
the terrarium to anyone who might want to continue the observations, 
and Judy Kurzer took them for the school class she teaches. 
The shell display for December will be of Marginella from the col- 
lection of Ed Cowles. 
The speaker of the day was Nick Katsaras, whose presentation was 
titled, "Marginellas and a few other things." He began his illus- 
strated talk with the “other things” -- photos of shells that were 
or are in his collection, and that are rare or exceptionally beau- 
tiful, or both. The many pictures of Marginella that followed were 
also of choice and exceptional specimens. 
Milton Werner, 
Recording Secretary. 
