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XII. An Historical Account of Testaceological Writers. 



% William George Mafon, M.D. F.R.S. 4^ L.S. and the Reverend 

 Thomas Rackett, M.A.F.R. S. 4- L. S. 



Read February 1, April 5, May 3, and June 21, 1803. 



Experience having fully evinced the necessity of system in 

 describing natural objects, it has alwa3's been an useful and 

 pleasing task to trace its formation and progressive improvement : 

 and though, until Linnaeus drcAV the outlines of his Systema Na- 

 tura, there were no plans of universal arrangement to which mo- 

 dern inquirers can feel much interest in turning their attention ; 

 yet, with respect to particular branches of natural history, we 

 shall find no one that has not engaged the labour of studious men 

 from the very infancy of learning, and that has not, in its pro- 

 gress towards perfection, called forth every variety of talent. 

 Thus the vegetable kingdom, in the contemplation of which 

 mankind in every age have placed one of their purest pleasures, 

 is seen to have employed the pen of science in a multitude of 

 attempts at method, giving rise to a diversity of details and dis- 

 criminations, and gradually increasing its claims to importance 

 through an endless series of authors. Aware of the advantages 

 which must always result from the review of successive systems, 

 and from digesting the claims of those who had preceded him, 

 the great Swedish naturalist presented vis with an excellent model 

 for this species of history in his Bibliotheca Botanica. If botani- 

 cal writers deserved this enumeration of their labours, and if the 



science 



