Transcriber’s Note:
The cover image was created by the transcriber and is placed in the public domain.
Conchology or Testaceology is a numerous and beautifulbranch of Natural History, treating of the testaceous coveringof animals; perhaps none but the department of Floracan vie with it in variety, symmetry of form, and rich colouring.It has ever excited admiration, and obtained a prominentsituation in the cabinet; and so great are the facilitiesafforded at the present day to procure specimens and obtaina knowledge of this science, that it has become one of therequisites of a finished education. Shells are found in allparts of the world, both on land and in water; but the mostbeautiful and valuable species are found between the tropics.
At first they were regarded as pleasing curiosities, andprized only on that account; but the investigations of scientificmen have proved that the study of this science is notonly interesting, but useful. Much valuable information hasalready been obtained, and, from the investigations of modernnaturalists, much more may be anticipated.
So intimate is the connexion between Conchology andGeology, that a knowledge of the one is indispensable tothe study and acquirement of the other. The geologist willdraw much advantage from a close study of the testaceouscovering of molluscous animals to aid him in determiningthe identity or the superposition of the different strata of theivearth and the extraordinary changes it has undergone; for,as Bergman elegantly says, “fossil shells, coral, and woodare the only three remaining medals of Creation.” He willsee in the innumerable quantity of these animals, succeedingeach other from generation to generation in the depth of theseas, one of the evident causes of the growth and increaseof islands and continents.
But man may find in the knowledge of Mollusca applicationsstill more direct to his well being in society, both as tothe advantages and disadvantages to be derived from them:thus a great number of species are proper for food, as oysters,mussels, &c., which are objects of commercial speculations.The Pinna furnishes the Italians with materials fora rich dress, and the pearl, so much prized by the Orientals,by princes, and particularly by the ladies, as a modest andbeautiful ornament, is produced by a disease of the animalsin certain spe