liNTRODUCTION. 7 



bination, have not within them, like flowers and animals, the seed 

 of dissolution. While the preparation of a specimen for the cabi- 

 net is a simple operation, a conchological collection will yet re- 

 main perhaps for ages. These important circumstances being 

 duly considered, in connexion with the universally acknowledged 

 beauty and variety, both of form and color, so strikingly observa- 

 ble in shells, it is a matter for neither wonder nor regret that these 

 magnificent exuvise, even regarded merely as such, should have 

 attracted, in a very exclusive degree, the attention and the admi- 

 ration of the naturalist. The study of Conchology, however, 

 when legitimately directed, and when regarding these exiivix in 

 their natural point of view, as the habitations, wonderfully con- 

 structed, of an immensely numerous and vastly important branch 

 of the animal creation, will lead the mind of the investigator 

 through paths hitherto but imperfectly trodden, to many novel 

 contemplations of Almighty Beneficence and Design. 



But it is, beyond all doubt, in a geological point of view that 

 Conchology oflfers the most of interest to the student; and here, by 

 reference to the fair pages of a profound and mighty knowledge, 

 to which it has pointed out the searcher after truth, are triumph- 

 antly refuted all charges brought against it of insignificance or 

 frivolity. 



" In fine, the relations of the mollusca," says De Blainville, 

 " with the mineral kingdom, and consequently with the mass of 

 the earth which they contribute to form, are not devoid of interest, 

 for without seeking here to resolve the physiological question — 

 whether the conchyliferous mollusca borrow of the inorganic king- 

 dom the calcareous matter which composes their shells, or whether 

 they form it of themselves, it is still certain that they produce, at 

 least, changes upon the surface of the earth by accumulating this 

 material in some places more than in others, and in consequence 



