Historical Account ofTestaceological Writers. 203 
LIGHTFOOT 
(well known from his Flora Scotica) was author of a description of 
five species of Testacea, either wholly unknown to, or not duly 
noticed by, any of his predecessors. This gentleman was deser- 
vedly considered as one of the most able Linncan scholars of his 
time, and, from his constant opportunities of access to the Port- 
land museum, had rendered himself particularly conversant in 
conchology; a circumstance sufficiently evinced in the paper of 
which we have been speaking, and which appears in the 76th 
volume of the Philosophical Transactions. The figures, also, ac- 
companying the paper are very correctly drawn. 
In the year 1 784 
MARTYN, 
a dealer, began one of the most beautiful and costly conchologi- 
cal works this country has ever seen. It bears the title of the 
Universal Conchologist, and was intended to exhibit a figure of 
every known shell, drawn and painted after nature. The author 
began with the non-descript species collected in the different 
voyages to the South Seas after the year 1?64. His work is pre- 
faced with general remarks, in French and English, an account of 
the more remarkable cabinets of shells existing in Great Britain, 
and some observations relative to Testaceological writers. It con- 
tains also explicatory tables, exhibiting the name of each shell, 
according to the author's system, the name it bears in the Lin- 
nean, the degree of rarity, the habitat, and the collection in which 
it was found. But, before this ingenious artist had completed his 
two volumes of South Sea shells, he discovered the impossibility 
of procuring purchasers sufficient to compensate him for his 
labour and expense,-^* misfortune generally experienced by pri- 
vate individuals who embark in such extensive and sumptuous 
undertakings. He, therefore, did not proceed beyond 160 plates ; 
2 D 2 which, 
