Dear All,
I'd like to make a correction or two on my transmission of last week or so
on Thomas Hutton.  I finally located my photocopy of his obscure paper of
1834 entitled "On the Land Shells of India".
 
1.)  He was a Lieutenant not a Captain in the 37th Regiment Native Infantry
at the time of publication.  He was listed as a Captain in his 1849 paper.
 
2.)  He was assisted by not W.T. Blanford, but the then Editor of Journal
of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, W. H. Benson.
 
3.)  Not all the species were found a Beana, but were collected in various
parts of India.
 
For your reading enjoyment, here is the Introduction to this paper as well
as the closing.  This exemplifies the unselfishness, importance and modesty
of amateur collectors which continues today.
 
"I have the pleasure to send you a few observations on the land and
fresh-water shells of India, which I have had the good fortune to collect
since January, 1832, accompanied by specimens, which will serve better than
drawings to she[o]w you the species described.
 
"I am sorry I cannot at present offer you a greater number of each, as my
collection is not very numerous, but should any of those sent be desirable,
I shall have pleasure in collecting for you whenever opportunity may occur.
 
"The same offer I would extend to the Society, did I think I could be of
any use in swelling the treasures of their museum.
 
"Being as yet but a tyro [a beginner, new recruit] in natural history, and
having no works of any great authority by me, I have hesitated in affixing
even a generic name to my descriptions, and should these be wrong, I must
crave your indulgence and correction.
 
"Note to the Editor [at end of paper]"
 
"These are all I have yet collected.
 
"I have sent a few of each kind . . . .Of some of those I sent I have very
few that I could only spare one or two, without making my cabinet very
bare.  The poorness of the specimens therefore I hope you will excuse for
the present, and should you not already possess sufficient, I shall have
pleasure in sending more whenever lucky enough to fall in with them.
 
"Should any part or the whole of the present communication be too trifling
for the pages of your Journal, do not hesitate an instant in rejecting it.
My object in writing, not being for the sake of seeing myself in print, but
for the purpose of communicating facts, in the cause of truth.
 
Neemuch, 20th October, 1833."
 
 
 
Kurt