INTRODUCTION. 



The science of Conchology has, within a very short 

 period, risen into notice amongst us, and has ah-eady 

 become a fashionable study, extensively and passion- 

 ately cultivated. The means of pursuing it, however, 

 are very limited. Nearly all the works we have, and 

 these are but few, are arranged on the Linneean sys- 

 tem. His arrangement of shells, like his arrangement 

 of all the kingdoms of nature, is veiy simple, though 

 very artificial. His divisions are few and comprehen- 

 sive, soon acquired and easily retained. But no one 

 makes any considerable advance in the study of Con- 

 chology, before he discovers great discrepancy in indi- 

 viduals belonging to the same Linnsean genus ; and he 

 learns that there is another system, already in general 

 use among naturalists, founded on natural characters, 

 and more in accordance with the present state of 

 knowledge. This system, or some modification of it, 

 he finds is destined to supersede all others, and this he 

 must learn. The works which contain it are in a 

 foreign language, of considerable magnitude, and are 

 possessed and read but by very few. So that the lim- 

 ited knowledge of Lamarck's genera, which is ordina- 

 rily acquired, is wholly traditional. 



