CHAP. I. RECENT WORKS. 17 



alike, they were placed, in his system, in one and the 

 same genus. Cuvier has altogether avoided this strange 

 mode of procedure ; but an inspection of his system 

 will bear us out, we think, in our opinion that he has 

 placed far too great a stress on the modes of respiration, 

 and paid too little attention to the shell, no less than to 

 the animal ; while the great error of Lamarck appears to 

 have been that of giving to the shell, and more espe- 

 cially the hinge of bivalves, a greater regard than he 

 bestows upon the animal. The system of M. de-Blain- 

 ville, indeed, professes to remedy these defects ; but we 

 can discern in it little that is new, beyond innumerable 

 compound Greek names, proposed for groups already 

 established by his predecessors, and which are only 

 calculated to overturn all existing nomenclature, with- 

 out adding anything practical to the advance of science. 

 (15.) Whatever may be the cause, certain it is that 

 nearly all that is now valuable in malacology has 

 emanated from the Continental naturalists. Besides 

 those just enumerated, the unwearied zeal of the French 

 circumnavigating naturalists, more especially M. Quoy, 

 has added to this science not merely a host of new 

 shells, but — what is far more valuable — innumerable 

 facts, of the highest importance, regarding their animals. 

 We only regret that the price of these splendid publica- 

 tions, and the few copies of them yet in this country, have 

 prevented us, in aU instances, from profiting from these 

 most valuable materials. The only one of our country- 

 men who has pursued the same path of inquiry, and 

 on the same philosophic principles, was our late friend, 

 the Reverend Lansdown Guilding, who, from his 

 official residence in the West Indies, had the enviable 

 opportunity of examining, and the rarely united talents 

 of drawing, dissecting, and describing, the soft Mollusca 

 of the Caribbean seas. To him is science indebted for 

 a knowledge of the animals of numerous terrestrial and 

 many marine shells ; and the institution, on the most 

 solid basis, of several natural genera. These invaluable 

 researches, too little appreciated by our conchologists. 



