ADANSON. 511 



shells, was ever given to the public. The character of tliis 

 volume has risen with the progress of the science, and it is 

 more valued hy the conchologist of the present day than it 

 was by the contemporaries of its author. He had some per- 

 sonal peculiarities — too visible in his writings — which could 

 not fail to hurt his popularity: an austere temperament which 

 caused him to treat his fellow-labourers with contemptuous 

 acerbity,* — a mind that would neither bend to nor treat with 

 respect the prejudices as he deemed them of his age, — an un- 

 flinching severity in criticising the writings of others, and a 

 pertinacious tenacity of his ov^ai views, — while some barba- 

 risms he attempted to introduce into the nomenclature of 

 conchology repelled the naturalists of a too nice taste, and 

 the very extent of his requirements from those who claimed 

 to be naturalists operated against him, for it Avas not to be 

 supposed that mere collectors or virtuosos were to enter on 

 so difficult a path, or would be willing to allow themselves 

 to be pushed aside as idlers, and put without the pale of the 

 scientific circle. f That very beauty, he exclaims, which by 

 its variety has attracted the regards of men to shells has be- 

 come an obstacle to their knowledge. " La coquille seule 

 depositaire de cette riche parure, a fait mepriser I'animal 

 auquel elle servoit de couverture, et est devenue seule I'objet 

 de I'admiration de quelques naturalistes. Epris, comme les 

 curieux, de la beaute frappante de ses couleurs, ils n'ont pas 

 juge que I'habitant fut digne de leurs recherches, et le diffi- 

 culte de se le procurer a chaque instant, n'a pas peu con- 

 tribue a augmenter leur dedain. Ils se sont done bornes a 

 I'examen des coquilles, ils n'en ont considere que le forme, 

 celle de son ouverture, ou le nombre de ses pieces ; c'est 

 d'elle seule qu'ils ont voulu tirer leurs caracteres primitifs et 

 distinctifs : de-la cette foule de systemes aussi peu satisfai- 

 sans les uns que les autres.";}; 



* " In the Garden (the Botanic Garden of Paris) I liave occasionally 

 met with Mr. Adanson, whose knowledge in botany would procure him great 

 reputation, were he less a slave to paradox and pedantry. He generally 

 accosted me with some attack on Linnteus, sometimes calling him grossly 

 ignorant and illiterate ; and then, when I have ventured to quote Pliilosophia 

 Botanica as a proof of the contrary, abusing him as scholastic." — Sin Jamks 

 E. Smith, Tour on the Continent, i. 126 ; and see a translation of Cuvier's 

 interesting Memoir of Adanson in the Edinb. New. Phil. Journ. iii. 1. et 

 seq. 



+ Adanson compares his contemporary conchologists to Scijiio and Ltrlius, 

 who were wont, for lack of other amusement, to pick up, like cliildrcn, tlie 

 pretty shells which were met with in their strolls along the Sicilian shores. 

 " lis n'ont traite cctta maticre que comme un jeu, paice qu'ils Tont tra- 

 vaillee sans soin et sans peine," &c. — Hixt. des Coguil. pref. vii. 



X Hist, des Coquillages, pref. v. 



