176 Turton'sMamml of British 



few but excellent detached essays in the journals, and, perhaps, 

 Sowerby's Genera of Recent and Fossil Shells (for even in that 

 work the animal plays too subordinate a part), there has not 

 been published, during the thirty-one years which have elapsed, 

 a single work that is worthy of the advanced state of our 

 knowledge, a knowledge contributed almost entirely by fo- 

 reigners. The introductions most popular amongst us * are 

 bare expositions of a system which in every step runs counter 

 to nature and to sense, with a supplementary explanation of 

 useless terms, or of terms which require no explanation. 

 Other introductions there are, we are quite aware; but even 

 these are merely systematical, and make no pretensions to 

 originality: and what are our recent systematic works but 

 repetitions of a twice-told tale, descriptions of things which 

 have been described as well before, without spirit, or life, or 

 variety ? On running over these works, one might suppose 

 that the animal was beneath a naturalist's notice, so sedu- 

 lously is every particular relative to it avoided ; and if a chance 

 remark is made, it is done with all caution, and as a by and 

 by affair. There, for example, lies before us the Conchological 

 I)ictionaiy of Dr. Turton, where we see in every page a mark 

 that the author had seen the species in a living state : but he 

 would be a most credulous man who should turn to that vo- 

 lume for any useful knowledge. And this is the more to be 

 regretted, as few have had, or can have, the opportunities of our 

 author in investigating the economy of these animals. Who 

 that is not a mere conchologist — who does not envy him, in 

 particular, the possession of his noble Serpulse ? and who, that 

 ever saw the tenants of even our common species, does not 

 regret that they had fallen into hands who knew not their 

 value and their curious beauty ? Conchologists deem little of 

 the pleasure, the interest, or the nobleness of their study, 

 when they confine themselves to the examination of the out- 

 ward and inorganic covering. 



Dr. Turton himself seems now aware of this. Conchology, 

 he tells us, in the dedication of the present volume, "is 

 scarcely beyond its infancy." And again he says : — " Till the 



* The works alluded to are those of Brown, Brooks, and Burrows ; of 

 which the latter has reached a second edition : the best proof possible of 

 its popularity. Brown says (1816), of the Linnaean system, that no one 

 has been able to supersede it by a better ; and that " its beauties must 

 perpetuate its preeminence." The perpetuity of Captain Brown is, we 

 suppose, a cycle of about ten years ; for in his late work, entitled Illustra-, 

 tions of Conchology y this preeminent system has not the precedence, and 

 newly proposed genera are adopted in such numbers as to alarm even our 

 reforming spirit. Brooks and Burrows are no less laudatory of the Linnaean 

 system, and abusive of every other ; but they are consistent. 



