132 
Dr. Maton's and Mr. Rao kepi's 
tioned class, the distinctions of 'Concha aspera and laves occa- 
sioning the disunion of several obvious natural genera. The 
" Onomasticon Zoicum" certainly deserves respectful mention, 
inasmuch as it was the earliest production of the kind that was- 
published in England. The author, who was a physician of con- 
siderable learning and celebrity, had before distinguished him- 
self in the science of natural history by his " E.vercitationes de 
Differentiis et NojninibusAiumaUum" published at Oxford in 1677* 
STENO 
cannot, with propriety, occupy a place in our historical account 
of Testaceological writers on any other ground than that of hav- 
ing been the author of several curious remarks on the mode of for- 
mation of shells. These remarks occur in a work, the title of 
which certainly does not indicate any connexion with them, viz. 
" De Solido intra Solidum naturaliter contento Dissert ationis Pro- 
dromus.'* It is (properly speaking) a treatise on crystallography, 
but contains some pages on the subject of shells that are highly 
deserving of attention, as they form the earliest attempt to ex- 
plain in a scientific manner the fabric and texture of testaceous 
bodies. 
BOYLE, 
our celebrated countryman, is not undeserving of mention here, 
having made experiments on the phsenomena of shell-fish (parti- 
cularly of the Ostrea edulis) under an exhausted receiver ; which 
experiments are described in the Philosophical Transactions (vol. 5. 
p. 2023.) of the year 1670. It is but right to regard whatever 
elucidates the nature, even of a solitary individual, of the testa- 
ceous tribe, as subservient to the accuracy of systematical arrange- 
ment; and we shall, therefore, not omit to point out in the course 
of 
