510 HISTORY OF CONCHOLOGY. 



something more than approbation was natural : there was 

 much excellence in it which prejudice or jealousy only could 

 not see, and which folly alone would have rejected ; and 

 while every collector and amateur found it easy to be under- 

 stood, ready in practice, and neat in nomenclaturing their 

 cabinets, their pursuit assumed the garb of science when 

 they could tell the scorner that they were following the 

 steps, and had the sanction, of a man whose genius has justly 

 won him a place in the first rank of those whom succeeding 

 ages continue to venerate for the good they have done in the 

 promotion of useful knowledge. 



While the eyes of almost all were turned to this northern 

 luminary for light to guide them in their pursuit, or as an 

 object by barking at which a few drew notice on their little- 

 ness, Jussievi of Paris, the admirer of Linnaeus' genius and 

 industry, and his correspondent, was explaining to his select 

 but few disciples the principles of what has been commonly 

 called the " Natural System." Jussieu's profound studies were 

 confined to botany, but he had colleagues and contemporaries 

 who attempted their application to conchology, and whose 

 want of success is to be ascribed mainly to the meagreness of 

 the anatomy of the Mollusca then attained, to the fewness of 

 the observations made on the living species, and in part also 

 to the imperfection of the views of the authors. Dauben- 

 ton, the colleague of Buffon, so early as 1743, insisted on a 

 knowledge of the animal as necessary to form a natural classi- 

 fication of shells : and in 1756, Guettard, who was the per- 

 sonal friend of Jussieu, not only gave his sanction to this 

 opinion, but showed its practicability and excellence by de- 

 fining, from the peculiarities of the animal and shell com- 

 bined, a considerable number of the univalves, comprehending 

 among these, in evident agreement with their relations, though 

 contrary to general use, the slugs, the Aplysia, and the Bul- 

 Isea. But the fullest attempt of this kind was made by 

 Adanson, whose work on Senegal was published some years 

 before Linnaeus had given the last revision to his system. 

 Impelled by an indomitable enthusiasm, Adanson visited 

 Senegal, under many disadvantages, to examine and describe 

 the natural productions of a tropical climate ; and for this 

 purpose he made very extensive collections in every depart- 

 ment of nature, but of his great work the first volume only, 

 containing the outline of his travels and his account of the 



— " Testacea mollusca domiporta, calcareaque domunciila nobilitata, calci- 

 fica, et ipsa ssepe calcivora, inscctis opposita specierum numero, magna 

 Natuise ludentis varietate multiplicata." — Si/st. Nat. 1069. 



