De naam Dreissena, een nomenclatorische puzzle

The lack of uniformity in the spelling of the generic name Driessena Van Beneden, 1835 (17 published spelling variants of which are enumerated here) is partly due to the fact that there exists no certainty as to the correct spelling of the name of the apothecary of Maaseik (Belgium) to whom this generic name was dedicated. In the literature one finds the name of this person spelled as DRIESSENS, DREISSENS, DRIESSEN, DRIESEN, DREISSEN and DREYSSENS, while in the old Maaseik pharmacy the spelling DREESSEN for this name was found by one of us (HUSSON). The archives of the town of Sittard (The Netherlands) and those of the Dutch province of Limburg contain the following information on the Maaseik apothecary. Born the 15th of August 1782 in Sittard he was baptized JOANNES HENRICUS DRIESSENS. In the registrar’s office of Sittard, which was installed in 1798, the family name consistently is spelled DREISSEN (e.g., in the record of the death of the mother in 1812, and that of the father in 1831). This spelling also was used in the administrative memorial of the province of Limburg in which it is noted that H. DREISSEN passed his examination for apothecary November 12, 1823 in Maastricht and that he was apothecary in Maaseik from 1824 to at least 1839 (due to the official separation in 1839 of the Kingdom of Belgium from the Kingdom of the Netherlands, Maaseik, which became Belgian, is not covered anymore in the Dutch provincial records of the years after 1839). In the registrar’s office of Maaseik it is recorded that the apothecary HENRI DREISSENS died March 27, 1862. Consequently there are three more or less official spellings of the name of the Maaseik apothecary: DRIESSENS (baptismal certificate, 1782). DREISSEN (registrar’s office Sittard, 1812—1831; Limburg provincial administrative memorial, 1824—1839), DREISSENS (registrar’s office Maaseik, 1862). The two last of these are to be preferred to the first, which was used before the fixation of the family names by the civil registration. It is clear therefore that there is no need to further emend the generic name Dreissena, which itself is an emendation of Driessena, to Dreissensia.