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104 IN T R O D U C T O R Y R E M A R K S .
daily for nearly a month in examining the animals of the various species of
Mollusca which the Baron Cuvier and his pupils had been collecting together
for several years, and which he had most carefully preserved for his own use,
for his intended new edition of his anatomy of Mollusca, a work the loss of
which we must all most sincerely regret.
All the descriptions (with the exception of a few of the English species)
ai-e taken from animals preserved in spirits, and which had in consequence
became much contracted in many of their parts.
I have only given a zoological description of the animals ; as according to
the rules of the British Museum, we are very properly forbidden to dissect
the animals under our charge, which might thereby be rendered useless for
subsequent observers. Sensible of the propriety of this regulation, I 'was
careful not to injure any of thosewhich I examined in the French and Dutch
museums, although in many cases there were several duplicates, the anatomical
details of which may hereafter be examined by those who are able
to bestow more time on the subject.
The examination of the numerous genera of Mollusca which I have been
enabled to make, has not only induced me to alter the position of some of
the genera, but has also discovered to me the important fact, that there is
often a great difference between the animals of two very similar shells. This
is very apparent between Littorina and Assaminea, the shells of which
resemble each other so nearly as scarcely to be distinguishable, and yet the
animals are very different.
These descriptions, short as many of them are, will be regarded as of
more importance to the Zoologist, when it is considered, that, with the
exception of the few animals dissected by Cuvier, and published in the
Annales du Muséum ; and those which Blainville examined in the collection
IN T R O D U C T O R Y R E M A R K S . 105
of the British Museum, in 1814, almost all the descriptions of the animals
given by Blainville and Rang, as well as many of those in Cuvier’s Animal
Kingdom, are taken from the figures in Adanson, Argenville and others, and
not from the animals themselves. In some instances, indeed, the description
has not even been taken from figures which really belong to the genus—as
is the case witli Natica; the description of this animal in Blainville and
Rang being derived from the Fossar of Adanson, which is probably a L ittorina;
and again, Lamarck has in the most extraordinary manner united
the animal of Coriocella (the Sigaret of Cuvier), and the shell Sigaret of
Adanson to form his genus Sigaretus, without discovering that they belonged
to different orders.
To the descriptions of the animals 1 have not only added a short account
of such of the species and genera as were new, but have also noticed such
other species collected by the officers of the expedition, or by the beforementioned
gentlemen, as furnished me with any new observations, either in
reference to their nomenclature, or to their natural history.
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