1129, Poe (Edgar Allan). The Conchologist's Text-Book, Avith a glossary of tecn- 

 iiical terms. By Capt. Thomas Brown. With 19 plates on steel. 12mo original printed 

 boards, 180 pp. Glasgow, 1833. Bookplate. $10.00 



Very scare. The first issue of the book said to have been plagarized by Poe aiul pub- 

 lished. Phila., 1839. See "International Magazine", Oct. 1850. Binding worn but clean 

 copy inside, edges untrimmed. 



PREFACE 



The term " Malacology,^^ an abbreviation of " Mala- 

 coxoology,^^ from the Greek ^a\axo?, soft, ^aov.an animal, 

 and xo>o?, a discourse, was first employed by the French 

 naturalist De Blainville to designate an important divi- 

 sion of Natural History, in which the leading feature of 

 the animals discussed was the softness of the flesh, or, 

 to speak with greater accuracy, of the general envelop. 

 This division comprehends not only the mollusca, 

 but also the testacea of Aristotle and of Pliny, and, of 

 course, had reference to molluscous animals in general 

 — of which the greater portion have shells. 



A treatise concerning the shells, exclusively, of this 

 greater portion, is termed, in accordance with general 

 usage, a Treatise upon Conchology or Conchyliology ; 

 although the word is somewhat improperly applied, as 

 the Greek conchylion, from which it is derived, em- 

 braces in its signification both the animal and shell. 

 Ostracology would have been more definite. 



The common works upon this subject, however, will 

 appear to every person of science very essentially 

 defective, inasmuch as the relations of the animal and 

 shell, with their dependence upon each other, is a 

 radically important consideration in the examination of 

 either. Neither, in the attempt to obviate this difficulty, 

 is a work upon Malacology at large necessarily included. 

 Shells, it is true, form, and for many obvious reasons, 



