Honored Sir,

You will pardon my troubling you with a scientific question. I should not dream of intruding on an instant of your valuable time had I not first tried to study out the matter & to question others.—

Can you refer me to any book or authority or yourself throw light on the question of the reason the Bulimus decollatus being always broken at the apex as an adult mollusk.¹

I have found hundreds of them in hollows under the marble fragments of the Parthenon, on Mounts Pentelicus and Lykabetus, in many places in Asia Minor the Troad &c.²

The adult mollusk side by side with the delicate fragile unbroken young Bulimus d, and other mollusks much more fragile of many kinds.

The abrasion of the apex in Unio, Trochus³ &c &c is apparently involuntary while in B.d. the same amount being broken in each specimen looks as voluntary as the self mutilation in the case of ants when they bite off their wings.⁴

Yours obediently | S. Marshall.