ELEMENTS 



CONCHOLOGY. 



Definition of the Science. 



Conchology is that science which treats of the natural history, and arrange- 

 ment of Shells and their animal inhabitants : — not of Shells alone, but of 

 Shells and the animals which produce them. The former are so beautiful 

 and easy of preservation, the latter so unsightly and difficult of access, that 

 the Conchologist has been greatly perplexed to know how to study the 

 Shell and its Mollusk with equal regard to the characters of both, and with 

 a proper estimation of their physiological connection. Drawings of many 

 in their native condition have, however, been published by intelligent tra- 

 vellers*, and a sufficient number of typical kinds have been described and 

 figured in the magnificent works of those naturalists to exhibit the true 

 method of arranging shells according to their zoological affinity. 



Many erroneous impressions have prevailed in regard to systematic ar- 

 rangement, for want of duly considering the important relation that must ne- 

 cessarily exist between the shell and its fabricator. One classifies his shells 

 according to their varieties of form and external aspect, forgetting that he 

 has merely a collection of skeletons before him • — the calcified portions of 

 animals possessing an organization far superior to that of the Bee, and a 

 thousand creatures, whose structure and sagacity of habits have so often 

 excited his admiration. Another of more abstruse habits of investigation, 

 competing with the incorrectness of these views, professes the study of the 

 soft parts mainly, and he even needs to be reminded that the shell, on the 

 other hand, is an integral portion of the animal, — an outer or exo-skeleton, 



* Lesson, ' Voyage de la Coquille ' ; Q,uoy and Gaimard, ' Voyage de l'Astrolabe ' ; D'Orbigny, 

 Voyage dans l'Amerique Meridiouale ; Deshayes, ' Mollusqucs de l'Algerie'. 



