S H ELLS. 



INTRODUCTORY. 



IN the very eai'liest times, long before there was any attempt 

 at the scientific classification and arrangement of shells, they 

 appear to have been objects of admiration, and to have been 

 valued on account of their beauty, for we find that the pre- 

 historic men, who, in company with the mammoth, or hairy 

 elephant, and other animals now extinct, inhabited Southern 

 France in days long gone by, used to bore holes in them, and, 

 like the savage of to-day, wear them as ornaments. The Greek 

 physician and philosopher, Aristotle, is said to have been the 

 first to study the formation of shells, and to raise the knowledge 

 thus acquired into the position of a science ; by him shells were 

 divided into three orders an arrangement preserved, with some 

 small changes, by Linnoeus. It is possible that the world-wide 

 renown of the Swedish naturalist during the last century, and 

 the ardour with which he pursued his investigations, may have 

 given an impetus to the study of natural objects, for we find that 

 at that period large sums were often given by collectors for 

 choice specimens of shells. Nor is this to be wondered at, for 

 few things look nicer, or better repay trouble expended on them, 

 than does a well-arranged and carefully mounted and named 

 collection of shells. Certainly nothing looks worse than a 

 number of shells of all descriptions, of every kind, shape, and 

 colour, thrown promiscuously into a box, like the unfortunate 



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