yew YORK SHELL CLUB NOTES No. 238 January 1979 Page 5 
they can make a human being ill and may even result 
it is important to detect these bibatanies in vartuus Beant cluiaes™ 
of ¥ ppereetar s pharmaceutical products that are injected into 
the body. 
Although the Food and Drug Administration has ye 
method as a routine diagnostic test for RAO biedL co teekarmapearabere 
believe it is up to 1000 times more sensitive at detecting endotoxin 
than the rabbit test currently approved by the FDA. The Limulus 
lysate Test (LLT) is capable of detecting...the presence of bacter- 
Hay ee 28°40 within one hour after the sample is taken from the 
patient. 
The horseshoe crab blood is blue resulting from ~ 
pigment that functions in respiration. By licachiceeah iuneontat ent 
needle through a muscular junction between the cephalothorax and ab- 
domen into the cardiac chamber, the blood and its amoebocytes 
(amoeba-like cells), the only circulating blood cells in the horse- 
shoe crab, are withdrawn into a 250 milliliter centrifuge bottle 
containing an anti-clotting agent. The crabs are returned to the 
sea unharmed. 
We have cultivated horseshoe crab amoebocytes successfully in spe- 
cial cell culture glassware using a modified basic growth medium, 
If limulus lysate can be produced from amoebocytes cultivated in 
the laboratory...the uncertain process of collecting horseshoe 
crabs during a relatively short season would be eliminated...and 
the danger of their future depletion would be avoided...At present, 
the quality of lysate may vary seasonally and its potency may vary 
from one group of horseshoe crabs to another. Despite improved 
techniques the level of standardization of the lysate potency falls 
short of that which could be obtained in laboratory cultivated 
cells. In fact, perhaps the largest unresolved question surround- 
ing the LLT and FDA approval for routine diagnostic use is stan- 
dardization from its production to its final Clinical application. 

DISCORD IN PARADISE, or, Where Angels Fear to Tread 
Robert H. Janowsky 
I take the liberty of borrowing my title for this essay from a se- 
ries of articles published at intervals in this periodical by its 
founder and consulting editor, M. Karl Jacobson. In his most inter- 
esting and entertaining articles Mr. Jacobson has brought to our 
attention some of the follies, foibles and malacological arguments 
that have taken place in the past. I feel that the title is justly 
applicable to the subject of this paper, also, and with the addi- 
tion of the subtitle can serve as a resume of my feelings toward 
some recent work done in the malacological field. 
At the present time there seems to be a headlong rush to publish 
New names for shells almost as fast as our improved collecting 
techniques can bring the shells out of the water. Where ance it 
Teco f. it is now apparently the mode 
A ARR Ras oF agent intend to demean the work of 
to name the shell yourself. 
any particular meer Oi nor do I intend to use this essay to pe 
the work that has been done. What I do wish to illustrate is the 
