6 INTRODUCTION. 



Writers have not been wanting to decry this study as frivolous 

 or inessential ; most unjustly assailing the science itself, on ac- 

 count of the gross abuses which have now and then arisen from 

 its exclusive and extravagant pursuit. They have reasoned much 

 after this fashion :— that Conchology is ^ folly, because Rumphius 

 was a fool. The Cotms Ceclo jVulli has been sold for three 

 hundred guineas ; and the naturalist just mentioned gave a thou- 

 sand pounds sterling for one of the first discovered specimens of 

 the Venus Bione (of Linnaeus). But there have been men in 

 all ages who have carried to an absurd, and even pernicious ex- 

 treme, pursuits the most ennobling and praiseworthy. 



To an upright and well regulated mind, there is no portion of 

 the works of the Creator, coming within its cognizance, which 

 will not afford material for attentive and pleasurable investigation ; 

 and, so far from admitting the venerable error even now partially 

 existing to the discredit of Conchology, we should not hesitate to 

 acknowledge, that while few branches of Natural History are of 

 more direct, very feiv are of more adventitious importance. 



Testaceous animals form the principal subsistence of an im- 

 mense number of savage nations, inhabitants of the sea-board. 

 On the coast of Western Africa, of Chili, of New Holland, and 

 in the clustered and populous islands of the Southern seas, how 

 vast an item is the apparently unimportant shell-fish in the wealth 

 and happiness of man ! In more civilized countries it often sup- 

 plies the table with a delicate luxury. Nor must we forget the 

 services of the pinna with its web, nor of the purpura with its 

 brilliant and once valuable dye, nor omit to speak of the pearl- 

 oyster, with the radiant nacre, and the gem which it produces, 

 and the world of industry which it sets in action as minister to 

 the luxury which it stimulates. 



Shells, too, being composed of particles already in natural com- 



m 



