IV PREFACE. 



regret, that the very acknowledgement of 

 their existence has extremely increased 

 their number; for a supposition seems to 

 have been universally indulged, that con- 

 chology lay open as a common field for 

 speculation, in which every individual, 

 whether qualified or not, was at liberty to 

 range, and exercise, without restraint, his 

 genius for invention. The consequence 

 has been, that scarcely two writers on the 

 subject have agreed in their opinions, and 

 that this general want of concurrence has 

 aggravated the evils which each endeavour- 

 ed to remove. 



It is easier to refute error than to establish 

 truth; thus, the several writers who have 

 dissented from the Linnaean school have, 

 indeed, satisfactorily pointed out some flaws 



