52 GENERIC SYSTEM. 



to which all human systems are too plainly subject, 

 have occasioned, most indisputably, many errors 

 in the classification of the individuals : but this 

 affects only the question of accuracy in a cata- 

 logue ; and it is not of material importance to the 

 elementary inquirer, whether these doubtful spe- 

 cies can, or cannot, be better placed than they 

 are at present. An addition to the number of sub- 

 divisions might, it would seem, be sometimes be- 

 neficial, and render the work of classification more 

 satisfactory and easy. Those shells which are de- 

 ficient in some one point alone of their analogy, 

 might, when separated into natural families, or 

 sections of genera, distinguished by those which 

 they do possess, more readily find the proper si- 

 tuation to which their affinities entitle them. But 

 it is pretty evident that by an increase of genera 

 you do any thing rather than simplify ; and sim- 

 plicity is surely as much a desideratum in Concho- 

 logy as in other branches of natural history. It 

 may be as well to mention here, that the terms 

 Cochleae and Conchse, often adopted by writers on 

 this subject, the former to signify univalves, and 



