Historical Account ofTestaceohgical J frit en. 167 
surely there are few tribes of animals which, by delighting the 
eye and engaging the attention, seem more likely to dispose the 
mind to sublime meditations, and to form a never-failing source 
of wonder and admiration, than the testaceous inhabitants of the 
deep. The title of this work might give rise to the supposition 
that it is calculated solely for popular use, and that the informa- 
tion is of that general and discursive kind which becomes Subser- 
vient only to the exercises of piety; but it will be found to be no 
less suited to the study of the man of science. It contains a more 
full account of testaceological writers than occurs in most other 
treatises of this nature; it abounds with anatomical and physio- 
logical knowledge ; the descriptions are conformable to a scien- 
tific arrangement of species; and by the notes and synonyms the 
author discovers himself to have been conversant with all the 
best productions of his predecessors in this department of natural 
history. It is also embellished with 137 figures of shells, which, 
though somewhat roughly engraved, are not unworthy of being 
consulted. A second edition was printed in 1756, preserving the 
octavo form like the first ; it is only to be lamented that it did 
not undergo conversion from the German into some more current 
language. 
At this period the natural history of our sister kingdom began 
to be investigated by men well qualified to do full justice to the 
subject. The first of these who committed his researches to the 
press was 
DR. CHARLES SMITH: 
but this gentleman limited them to the counties ofWaterford, 
Cork, and Kerry, which counties he described successively, and 
in separate works, under the patronage and with the assistance 
of the Physico-Historical Society of Dublin. It may not be su- 
perfluous to remark, that the express purpose of this institution 
was 
