Historical Account ofTestaceological Writers. 129 



with figures of any species, nor are his descriptions on this sub- 

 ject at all full, except where he treats of pearls. 



About twenty 3'ears after the publication of the Museum Calce- 

 olariuin there appeared a performance of a similar nature in the 

 " Gazophi/lacium Rerum Naturalium" of 



MICHAEL RUPERT BESLER 



(the brother of Basil), whose plates were in the first edition twen- 

 ty-four in number, representing, among other subjects, a few 

 figures of shells, some of which, however, are formed artificially 

 into I'idiculous similitudes of human heads, &c. There is a con- 

 cise description in Latin under the respective figures. In the 

 second edition, the number of plates was augmented to thirty- 

 five, with a German preface ; but in this, as in the former publi- 

 cation, the majority of the subjects relate to artificial curiosities. 

 Nothing can be more incommodious than the size of the book, 

 which is almost twice as large as that of the copper-plates. 

 The museum of 



WORMIUS 



contained many species of Testacea : but the author vouchsafed 

 figures of none of them, except Lepas anatifera ; and this Avas one 

 that might well have been spared, being copied from Marcgrave's 

 Nat. Hist. BrasiliiB, which is referred to by Linn<Eus for that spe- 

 cies. Connected with it we have the whole of the ridiculous story, 

 so generally received by the credulous naturalists of that day, re • 

 specting the Barnacle Goose. Chapters 6, 7, and 8 of the " Mu- 

 seum Wormianum" relate entirely to shells, divided, according to 

 the Aristotelian classification, into Vnivalvia, Bivalvia, and Tur- 

 binata. 



The volume of which we have been speaking was preceded by 

 the s3'noptic catalogue of SEGER, printed at Copenhagen in 16.33. 



VOL. VII. s An 



