Historical Account of Testaceological Writers. 157 
in other systems, to a most inconvenient and perplexed multipli- 
cation of genera. The parts, classes, and sections also are far 
from being well conceived, and embarrass, rather than assist, the 
investigation of the other divisions. 
A philosophical account of the growth, generation, &c. of tes- 
taceous animals is prefixed to the classification, which consists of 
three parts ; the first having two classes and seventeen genera, the 
second six classes and fifty genera, and the third three classes and 
forty-three genera. There are no trivial names, nor are there 
many original descriptions of species, most of the latter being 
borrowed from Buonanni, Lister, and Rumphius. 
The same year 
BRUCKMANN, 
of Brunswick, published a dissertation on the Venus Dione and a 
Cypraa, and 
FRANKENAU, 
in the Acta Acad. Nat. Cur. on Chiton punctatus, under the absurd 
title of " Calva Serpentis Americani Diademata." Each of these is 
illustrated by copper-plate figures. 
VALENTYN. 
Though his descriptions, in consequence of being clothed in the 
Dutch language, do not admit of very general use, yet he has 
conferred great benefit on Testaceology by his admirable plates, 
of which there are sixteen (finished in the highest style both of 
accuracy and elegance), consigned solely to figures of East Indian 
shells. These plates accompanied the publication of the " Oud 
en Nieuw Oost-Indien," but were re-published, with conchological 
descriptions only, in 1754. 
Valentyn's work may be looked upon as a sort of continuation 
of Rumphius's. As, like the latter, he was some time resident in 
Amboyna, 
