554 HISTORY OF SYSTEMS. 



rales magni. Corpus sacciforme, collo coarctato, 

 tubo conico exserto, apice aperto. 



A. Corpus testaceum. 



a. Testa uuilocularis. 



b. Testa laminis transversis multilocularis. 



B. Corpus nuclum=Sepia, Lin. 



In Britain Conch ology was thoroughly Linnaean ; and the 

 very names of Cuvier and Lamarck were scarcely known to 

 its followers when, in 1815, the peace opened up access to 

 the continent. That there were students in the art amongst 

 us, to some numbers, is made certain by tlie publication of 

 several Litroductions, and by the active diligence displayed 

 in the search more especially of indigenous shells. Lister 

 laid the foundation of a native conchology * on which no 

 other could then build ; but, to its ultimate completion, 

 Petiver contributed a few species, Pennant something more, 

 and Da Costa also something in a separate volume, published 

 in 1778, of considerable pretensions and some merit. f They 

 found successors in men of like minds and capacity, amongst 

 whom it is sufficient here to specify Mr. Boys, of Sandwich, 

 the first to investigate our minute shells, Dr. Pulteney, Mr. 

 Donovan, Mr. Adams of Pembroke, and Captain Laskey, 

 who carried these researches into Scotland, — researches 

 which were cloaked with the veil of science to hide their real 

 nature, for I do not overstate the truth when I tell you that 

 they were in reality instituted more to gratify an innate taste 

 for collecting things beautiful and rare, than for any wider 

 object. In 1803, Mr. Montagu, however, enriched us with 

 his " Testacea Britannica," which was completed in 1808. 

 In the preface some misgivings of the perfectness of the 

 Linnaean system are feebly hinted ; and, in the body of 

 the work, a very few additional genera are defined, with 

 an apology for the bold innovations ; but, albeit willing 

 enough to look in this direction, we cannot see in these 

 symptoms the small cloud that was about to usher in 

 the fruitful change. For shortly before the completion of 

 the " Testacea Britannica," there appeared, in the Linnaean 

 Transactions, a descriptive catalogue of the British Testacea 

 by Dr. Maton and the Rev. Thomas Racket, J — men of note 

 in their day, — and the work was well done in the established 

 fashion, slavishly Linnaean in manner at least, with its defi- 

 nitions and divisions, its trivial and natural characters, a 



* Historise Aniinalium Angli^e tres tractatus. Land. 1678. 

 t Historia naturalis Testaceorum Britannise ; or, Tlic Britisli Concliology, 

 &c. By Emanuel Mcndcs da Costa. 4to. Lond., 1778. 

 % Vol. viii. Lond., 1807. 



