HISTORY 



OF 



CONCHOLOOI. 



The name of Aristotle stands high in the records of philosophy. He is 

 called by Dr. Pulteney, " the father of testaceological science," and by 

 Dr. Maton, " the inventor of system." The learned world is indebted cer- 

 tainly to the writings of Aristotle for the first account we shall probably ever 

 possess of the state of natural science at the period in which he lived. The 

 classification of shells, contained in the fourth book of Aristotle's " History of 

 Animals," has withstood the test of ages, and, with improvements which recent 

 discoveries have rendered necessary, is in general adoption with late writers. 

 Linnaeus himself was, in a great measure, indebted to Aristotle for the out- 

 lines of his system, for many of his genera, and for the names under which 

 those genera are retained, even in the most improved state of his system of 

 Testaceology. The " Ostracodermata" of Aristotle (for such is the title of 

 his Conchological works) presents to us a valuable scheme for shells. 



He divides shells into two principal classes, (Movd^t/ga and AiQygx,) or 

 univalves and multivalves. Aristotle flourished about 200 years before the 

 Christian sera. 



C. S. Pliny wrote largely on Conchology. The ninth book of his History 

 of Animals is very copious: it is more diffuse than that of Aristotle, and the 

 arrangement, if not so methodical, is, notwithstanding, a useful work, and may 

 be consulted with advantage. 



After the dark ages, Vincentius Belleracentis was one of the earliest writers 

 on the subject. The " Speculum Naturae," published in folio, in the year 



