CHAP. I. BIBLIOGRAPHY OF BLALACOLOGY. 15 



doubtless, gave rise to the voluminous work of jMartini 

 and Chemnitz, which, although published between 

 1769 and 1788, and with figures exceedingly ill drawn, 

 is, nevertheless, the most valuable, as a general work, 

 w^e yet possess. It was soon after -this time, however, 

 that George Humphrey*, F.L.S., the chief commercial 

 conchologist then living, gave to the world a small 

 pamphlet, wherein he arranged the Testacea upon an 

 entirely novel and very remarkable plan. As a system 

 of conchology, this was both a sudden and^a most 

 extensive improvement upon everything of the kind 

 which had hitherto been done. The arrangement, 

 which will be subsequently adverted to, as far excels 

 that of Linnaeus, as Lister's exceeds that of Klein. 

 There can be no doubt, in fact, that this little unpre- 

 tending pamphlet, published in this country merely 

 as an exhibition catalogue, found its way to France, and 

 served as the main foundation, although unacknow- 

 ledged, for the subsequent system of Bruguiere, if not 

 of Lamarck and Cuvier. It was, to write co]loquially_, 

 the first quiet but thorough breaking of the ice^ in 

 which conchologists were bound up by the Linnsean 

 system ; and those who followed up the reformation, 

 however justly we may praise them as iyriprovers, can- 

 not be invested with the more honourable distinction 

 of leaders. It was, therefore, not in France, but in 

 England, that the revolution against the meagre concho- 

 logical school of Linnaeus first originated. But, having 

 said this, we can put forth no claims for our countrym.en, 

 on this head, during a subsequent period of nearly forty 

 years. Montagu, indeed, must be named with honour, 

 and Pennant's writings aided much to spread a taste for 

 collecting shells ; but beyond these, we recollect no others 

 deserving special record. Meantime, a more correct 

 knowledge of the molluscous animals was making rapid 

 progress on the Continent. Those illustrious and ad- 

 mirable anatomists, Poli in Italy, and Cuvier in France, 



* Museum Calonnianum. — Specification of the various Articles which 

 compose the magniticent Museum of Natural History, collected by M. de 

 Caloinie in France. Anonymous, London, May 1. 1797. 



