Vera Fretter and J. Peake (editors). Volume 2A Systematics, Evolution andEcology (1978) pp. xi, 540. Volume 2B Economic Malacology with particular reference to Achatinafulica (1979) pp. x, 150. Academic Press, London, New York and San Francisco.
Originally reviewed by A J Cain in 1981. Published in Journal of Conchology (1981), Vol.30
The first volume of this series (Functional Anatomy and Physiology) appeared in 1975, and papers in volume 2A have notes that the mss were delivered in 1972, or submitted in 1972 and returned for hasty correction in 1977, or submitted in 1975, etc.; similarly volume 2B contains no reference later than 1976 - there seems to have been some delay in the publication. Nevertheless, these are two very useful volumes. The chapters of the first (2A) are: Systematics and comparative morphology of the Basommatophora (B. Hubendick); Classification of the land Mollusca (A. Solem); Experimental methods in molluscan systematics (G. M. Davis); Chromosomes of pulmonate molluscs (C. M. Patterson andj. B. Burch); Genetic variation and natural selection in pulmonate molluscs (B. Clarke, W. Arthur, D. T. Horsley and D. T. Parkin); Slugs - a study in applied ecology (P. J. Hunter); Pulmonate molluscs as intermediate hosts for digenetic trematodes (D. S. Brown); Ecology of freshwater pulmonates (W. D. Russell-Hunter); On the evolution of gastropods in ancient lakes (K. J. Boss); Distribution and ecology of the Stylommatophora (J. Peake). The second volume (2B) is a single treatise by A. R. Meade in 10 chapters, with an extensive reference list and subject index, on the so-called Giant African Snail Achatinafulica.
Proofreading is not always meticulous (one chapter ofMeade's treatise is omitted from the 'Contents of Volume 2B' in vol. 2A, and there are some rather remarkable misprints) and editing is rather uneven. Some authors should have been told that sentences are separated by more than a comma, and odd remarks beginning with 'Particularly as ...' or similar phrases are not separate sentences. Moreover, inverted commas should never be used in scientific prose except to mark an actual quotation, or perhaps to introduce a new term (in which case italics are better). Any other use only serves to warn the reader that the author does not mean quite what he says, without saying what he does mean. This is useless even to English-speakers, and a, real menace to a non-English-speaker, perhaps painfully translating a particular paragraph with a dictionary. Scientific English should be less idiomatic than spoken or literary English, entirely without silly trendy phrases (including slang) which may need a special dictionary in ten years' time, and as plain and expressive as possible. Some of the articles come up to these standards; a few do not.
The two volumes could perhaps have been better constituted if the more applied or medically oriented papers (on slugs and intermediate hosts) in 2A had been placed in 2B, but this is very much a matter of taste. It is impossible in this review to comment in detail on the various contributions (and I am not competent to do so for several). It is always possible to disagree with a few points here and there, but that is not really helpful to anyone. There is a fine diversity of subjects, written by workers of reputation, and even though the reference-lists are now somewhat out of date, the volumes are essential for anyone interested in pulmonates in whatever way.