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XII. An Historical Account of Testaceological Writers. 
By William George Maton, M.D. F.R.S. $ L.S. and the Reverend 
Thomas Rackett, M.A. F.R.S. $ L.S. 
Read February 1, April 5, May 3, and June 21, 1803. 
xLxperience having fully evinced the necessity of system in 
describing natural objects, it has always been an useful and 
pleasing task to trace its formation and progressive improvement : 
and though, until Linnaeus drew the outlines of his Systema Na- 
tures, there were no plans of universal arrangement to which mo- 
dern inquirers can feel much interest in turning their attention ; 
yet, with respect to particular branches of natural history, we 
shall find no one that has not engaged the labour of studious men 
from the very infancy of learning, and that has not, in its pro- 
gress towards perfection, called forth every variety of talent. 
Thus the vegetable kingdom, in the contemplation of which 
mankind in every age have placed one of their purest pleasures, 
is seen to have employed the pen of science in a multitude of 
attempts at method, giving rise to a diversity of details and dis- 
criminations, and gradually increasing its claims to importance 
through an endless series of authors. Aware of the advantages 
which must always result from the review of successive systems, 
and from digesting the claims of those who had preceded him, 
the great Swedish naturalist presented us with an excellent model 
for this species of history in his Bibliotheca Botanica. If botani- 
cal writers deserved this enumeration of their labours, and if the 
science 
