Ross, Gijs, Andy and all,

What about Born?  Baron Ignatius von Born (1742-1791) produced, in 1778
in Vienna, Index rerum naturalium musei Caesarei Vindobonensis Pars Ima
Testacea, at the command of Maria Theresa, Empress of Austria for her
museum in Vienna.  I quote from Dance's A History of Shell Collecting:

"...a man whose other writings deal almost exclusively with minerals and
who, two years later, followed up his descriptions of the imperial
shells with a sumptuous folio volume containing coloured figures of many
of them.  The collection, now in the Natural History Museum of Vienna,
is of great importance to systematists as Born described from it a
number of species new to science." p. 66

A few of the American species that he described are Terebra cinerea,
Phalium granulatum, Cerithium litteratum, and Tegula fasciata.

I remembered about Born not because I possess a vast knowledge of the
history and literature of shell collecting, but because a novice
collector once asked me, "What's all this stuff about 'Born, 1778'?
Surely they don't keep the birthdates of all the shells!?" It was all I
could do to straighten up and answer her!

Lynn Scheu
Almost ready to leave for our slow trek from Louisville to Houston via
the Natchez Trace, New Orleans and Lafayette...I'll miss all of you who
aren't there!