INTRODUCTION. ; Z 
bination, have not within them, like flowers and animals, the seed 
of dissolution. While the preparation of aspecimen for the cabi- 
net is a simple operation, a conchological collection will yet re- 
main perfect for ages. These important circumstances being 
duly considered, in connexion with the universally acknewledged 
beauty and variety, both of form and colour, so strikingly observa- 
ble in shells, it is a matter for neither wonder nor regret that these 
magnificent exuviz, even regarded merely as such, Should have 
attracted, in a very exclusive degree, the attention and the admi- 
ration of the naturalist. The study of Conchology, however, 
when legitimately directed, and when regarding these exuviz in 
their natural point of view, as the habitations, wonderfully con- 
structed, of an immensely numerous and vastly important branch 
of the animal creation, will lead the mind of the investigator 
through paths hitherto but imperfectly trodden, to many novel 
contemplations of Almighty Beneficence and Design. 
But it is, beyond all doubt, in a geological point of view that 
Conchology offers the most of interest to the student; and here, by 
reference to the fair pages of a profound and mighty knowledge» 
to which it has pointed out the searcher after truth, are triumph- 
antly refuted all charges brought against it of insignificance or 
frivolity. 
“In fine, the relations of the mollusca,” says De Blainville, 
“with the mineral kingdom, and consequently with the mass of 
the earth which they contribute to form, are not devoid of interest, 
for without seeking here to resolve the physiological question— 
whether the conchyliferous mollusca borrow of the inorganic king- 
dom the calcareous matter which composes their shells, or whether 
they form it of themselves, it is still certain that they produce, at 
least, changes upon the surface of the earth by accumulating this 
material in some places more than in others, and in consequence 
