Achille VALENCIENNES (1794-1865), French zoologist, malacolo - Lot 64

Lot 64
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Achille VALENCIENNES (1794-1865), French zoologist, malacolo - Lot 64
Achille VALENCIENNES (1794-1865), French zoologist, malacologist and ichthyologist. Director of the Natural History Museum's Chair of Zoology (reptiles and fish), then of Natural History of mollusks, worms and zoophytes. Autograph letter signed. S.l.n.d. 2 pp. in-4. Achille Valenciennes describes his research into an unusual case of snail: "[...] I have just found a living mollusc which has a rather remarkable deviation from its normal shape; it is not the first time that this has been observed; but ordinarily, the shell is the object of the curiosity of amateurs who hasten to destroy molluscs. As I was lucky enough to have the animal alive, I thought I'd show it at the Society's meeting. The mollusc in question is a snail [...] that Linnaeus called Helix aspersa. Instead of winding in a spiral around an axis [...] so that the turns of the spiral are contiguous. The individual has deviated from this normal shape, assuming a form to which amateurs give the name of scalar snail. This is the second example I have observed in the Jardin des Plantes [...]". Valenciennes explains the consequences of this deformation on the animal's viscera, heart, vertebrae, reproductive organs and even the rectum. He will keep the results of his future research for presentation with the living snail, etc.
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