REMARKS ON CONCHOLOGY. 



9 



(Cirripedes) fragments of worms (Annelides), hack- 

 bones of cuttlefish, gill covers of sea hares (^Aplysia), 

 Sic, should arrange them in their cabinets upon some 

 plan, and give them names ; but no one will maintain 

 that this amusement deserves to be called science. 



(10.) One of the first zoologists of this country, in 

 speaking of the utter ignorance which exists on the 

 natural arrangement of the Testacea, and the high 

 importance that belongs to the inquiry, makes the fol- 

 lowing remarks : — " At all events, it is not to those 

 collectors who are solely intent on the external form of 

 a shell, or the streaks of colour which ornament it, that 

 the hope of discovering the true arrangement of the Mol- 

 lusca can be held forth. The study of shells appears, 

 indeed, to be indispensably necessary to the geologist ; 

 and, no doubt, the testaceous covering of an animal is 

 always so intimately connected with its structure, that 

 it would be unpardonable in the naturalist, who ought 

 to leave nothing without investigation, to forget shells. 

 But, on the other hand, when we call to our recollection 

 the lamentable error committed by Linnaeus and his 

 disciples, in not following the example of our celebrated 

 Lister in the arrangement of the Mollusca, we be- 

 come convinced there was about as much hope of their 

 ever arriving at the truth by the means they chose to 

 adopt, as that a collection of the wings of different in- 

 sects should ever instruct us fully in the natural history 

 of the animals to which they belong. It is said that 

 Klein formed an ornithological cabinet, in which the 

 feet and beaks of birds were only to be seen ; because, 

 according to his notions, they were all the parts re- 

 quisite for the proper arrangement of the feathered 

 creation. He thought that it was possible to be a good 

 ornithologist, without knowing the least of a bird but its 

 beak and claw. We may, indeed, laugh at this ; but, 

 at the same time, we ought to inquire whether similar 

 ridicule may not, with justice, be extended to those 

 conchologists, who, having procured a shell, describe and 

 classify it without deigning to bestow a single thought 



