64 Lamarck’s Genera of Shells. 
Art. VI..—Lamarcx’s Genera of Shells. 
THE increasing interest that conchology excites amongst 
naturalists in general, and its importance to the geologist as a 
criterion whereby to identify corresponding strata, have de- 
termined us to devote some pages of our journal to this 
subject. 
Amongst the organic remains of this class, there are some 
that are unknown, except in their fossil state, and it is only 
by comparing them with their recent analogues, that their place 
in the general series can with confidence be ascertained. To 
this end a competent knowledge of recent shells and their 
classification, is indispensable, and to obtain it some general 
system must be adopted as our guide. The chief difficulty at the 
outset is to choose the least exceptionable, “ for a supposition 
seems to have been universally indulged, that conchology lay 
open as a common field for speculation, in which every indivi- 
dual, whether qualified or not, was at liberty to range, and 
exercise without restraint, his genius for invention. The con- 
sequence has been, that scarcely two writers on the subject 
have agreed in their opinions*.” We concur in the truth of this 
observation, but dissent from its author and many other re- 
spectable authorities, as to the conclusion, that therefore the 
method of Linnzus is the one which the conchologist ought to 
prefer, and we hope we may do so without the imputation of 
belonging to the number of those, whom “ ignorance or envy” 
have induced to raise objections ‘‘ against his system or his 
fame.” As to the latter, we can have no wish or motive to 
deteriorate it; but as to his arrangement of shells, “ the pro- 
fessed foundation” of which “is upon external characters, upon 
those of the testaceous covering, and not upon the genus or 
species of the worm,” we must decline adopting it. In the 
first place, it has become insufficient, from the numerous addi- 
tions that have been made of late years, to the catalogue of 
shells, and from more accurate examination of those known in 
* Burrow’s Elements of Conchology. 1815. Preface, p. vi- 
+ Ibid., p. 50. 
