historical Account ofTestaceoIogical Writers. 155 



of these plates contain shells, and are not ill executed, but the 

 descriptive part is slight and useless. 



JOHN HENRY LOCHNER, 



the author of a work entitled " Rariora Musei Besleriani," unfor- 

 tunately did not live to enjoy the reputation which, as he was only 

 twenty years of age at the time of completing such laborious de-j 

 scriptions, was so justly due to him. The care of publishing them 

 devolved to his father IMichael Frederick Lochner, who was di- 

 rector of the Imperial Academy Nat. Cur., and by whom we are 

 presented, in the preface, with an interesting account of the extra- 

 ordinary youtli so prematurely snatched from the world, as also 

 of the two Beslei's, whose collections were so much celebrated in 

 their day. Twenty-four plates out of the forty are the same as ap- 

 peared in Basil Besler's own work, and there are only three rela- 

 tive to shells. Much of the description is extracted from other 

 authors, and the knoAvledge displayed in it is chiefly of an anti- 

 quarian and philological nature, there being no attempt at 

 system. 



VALENTIN I, 



though his most voluminous work came forth as early as the year 

 1704, we have named here, on account of his most valuable per- 

 formance not appearing until sixteen years after the former ; we 

 allude to the " Amphit heat rum Zootomicum." It is true that a large 

 part of the contents of this volume consists of extracts from 

 preceding and contemporary writers, and many of the plates are 

 copied; but, considered Avith reference to shells, the Amphithe- 

 atrum Zootomicum has much better claims to attention than the 

 Museum Museorum. In the latter the figures of shells are wretchediy 

 executed. In fact, this bulky work relates to materia mcdica as 

 much .as to natural history, and the second edition actually bears 



X 2 the 



