Historical Account of Testaceological Writers. 207 
fortunately for natural history and his nation, he was cut off by a 
premature death, just after he had completed the 1st volume 
(which does not go beyond the letter C) of the article Vers. In 
the preface to this article we are presented with the method of 
arrangement which he intended to have pursued, and which is 
obviously founded on that of Linnaeus : in fact, the author pro- 
fesses to deviate from it no further than he conceives himself to 
be required by the discoveries subsequent to the publication of 
the Sy sterna. The number of genera, however, in the French zoo- 
logist's order of Testacea is nearly double that of Linnoeus's, being 
sixty-one instead of thirty-six. Only two livraisons of plates con- 
taining shells have hitherto come to our hands; but such is the 
originality of the figures, and the excellence of their execution, 
that, incomplete as they are with respect to the letter-press, they 
form by themselves a very valuable work to be referred to by 
other authors. — There occur some interesting papers relative to 
Testacea by M. Bruguiere in the Journal a 1 ' Hist. Nat. (of which 
that gentleman was a principal conductor); in one of these he has 
treated, at considerable length, of the formation and growth of 
the Porcellanea, adducing a variety of new and curious facts on 
that subject. 
The " Naturalist's Miscellany" of our countryman 
DR. SHAW 
is too well known to require any detailed mention in this paper; 
and, even if it had not been inconsistent with our plan to have 
discussed the merits of contemporary English authors, we could 
not, with propriety, enter upon an analysis of a work which is 
not yet completed. We shall, therefore, content ourselves with 
pointing out its place in the general history of Testaccology. 
The 
