1<24 Dr. Maton's and Mr. Rackett's 



lie apologises, by remarking, that persons who reside in the vici- 

 nity of the sea are alone competent to attempt a full description 

 and a scientific discrimination of the Testacea. — We have next to 



mention 



BELON, 



famous for his travels in the East, and who was, perhaps, one of 

 the first learned men that travelled Avith a particular vieAv to na- 

 tural science. In 1553 he published at Paris an octavo volume 

 " de Aquatilibus," accompanied by figures, among which are a 

 few shells not incorrectly represented, but the description is 

 scanty and superficial. The succeeding year 



RONDELETIUS 



(Professor of Physic at Montpelier), whose situation had given 

 him many opportunities in this way, published on the same sub- 

 ject in a work bearing the title of " Universa Aquatilium His- 

 toria." In the second part of this work he has described and 

 figured upwards of one hundred species of Testaceous animals. 

 He has quoted largely from Aristotle and Pliny, interspersing his 

 descriptions with philological remarks, which are, in many in- 

 stances, more copious than those which relate to the nature of 

 the creatures themselves. 



In the different editions of the Commentaries of 



MATTHIOLUS 



the cuts are very different, both in accuracy and dimensions, and 

 still more so in number. The first edition of this work contains 

 figures of only nine species of shells ; the blocks seem to have 

 been afterwards borrowed by the Spanish booksellers (a practice 

 very common at that period), and hence the figures of the Sala- 

 manca edition of 1566 are the same. In the Italian edition of 1565 



some 



