Historical Account of Testaceological Writers. l65 



D'ARGENVILLE 



to the kingdom of France. The modesty of this author induced 

 him to conceal his name in the first edition, the title page inti- 

 mating only that he was of the Royal Academy of Sciences at 

 Montpellier: it was inscribed " L'Histoire Naturelle eclaircie datis 

 deux de ses Farties principales, la Lithologie et la Conclii/liologie," &c. 

 In the first chapter of the first part some account is given of na- 

 tural Iiistory in general, and of the works of those writers who 

 have treated of Lithology and Testaceology. The catalogue is 

 short, and the author declines speaking of his contemporaries, 

 and of such as have given the natural history of particular coun- 

 tries only. In the second chapter of the second part he proceeds 

 to develop liis system, dividing Testacea into tlie three com- 

 monly received classes, and separating those species Avhich inha- 

 bit the sea from those Avhich inhabit the land. His families are 

 twentj'-seven in number, including the Echini, and are founded 

 chiefly on external figure, though in the genera of F/iolas, Solen, 

 Chama, Venus, Ostrea, Cyprcea, Conus, Nautilus, Strombus, Trochus, 

 Helix, Nerifa, DentaUum, Ha Hot is, and Patella, the characters 

 correspond very nearly with those established afterwards by Lin- 

 naeus. Of thirty-three plates, twenty-six exhibit many of the 

 more common as well as of the more beautiful shells; they are 

 not only finely but accurately executed, and entitle our author 

 to the epithet of " nitidissimus," so appropriately bestowed on 

 him by the great Swedish naturalist. AVe ought not to omit men- 

 tioning that, besides a particular description of every species, the 

 work contains a chapter on the formation and growth of Testacea, 

 some observations on the methods of cleaning and polishing 

 shells, and a concise account of the most celebrated cabinets of 

 natural curiosities existing in Europe at that time. 



The 



