FABIUS COLUMNA. 497 



inquiries. Two of his works therein bear the date of 1616 ;* 

 and they are illustrated with excellent figures of species 

 hitherto unnoticed, drawn and etched by himself. One of 

 his new species is the Ianthina ; and the observation of its 

 property of shedding a purple fluid when alarmed, led him 

 undoubtedly to his learned and interesting research as to the 

 true animal that furnished the Tyrian purple. In the trea- 

 tise which he published on this subject, his learning and 

 critical acumen are conspicuous, and not less so his reliance 

 on his own observations, which were made his guide in in- 

 terpreting the obscure and imperfect passages which the 

 ancients had left as our only records of a lost art. He was 

 not the author of a mere vexed commentary, and only a 

 learned and laborious compilator ; but in Fabius Columna 

 we find something more promising to futurity, — a naturalist 

 who knew how to avail himself of what had been done, and 

 who could aid the growth of his chosen subject by facts of 

 his own providing, f 



The writings of this period afford good evidence of a 

 growing and considerably extended taste for the contempla- 

 tion of Shells, which was kept alive and diffused by the 

 activity of a daily enlarging commerce furnishing, to col- 

 lectors and amateurs, numerous novelties of uncommon forms 

 and beauty to gratify, and at the same time to stimulate 

 their curiosity. Hence also the origin of museums, of which 

 Aldrovandus is usually said to have set the example ; J and 

 of these Shells made a large and favourite part from their 

 beauty and variety, and from the ease with which they were 

 procured and preserved. These museums soon became rather 

 numerous in Italy and Germany, and although they were 

 undoubtedly formed more for the gratification of the taste 

 of their owners, than with any views towards science, and 

 hence arranged in fantastic and picturesque designs, still it 

 is from their institution that we date the origin of Concho- 

 logy as a separate branch of natural history. The catalogues 

 published of a few of the most considerable of these mu- 

 seums are among the works generally enumerated as worthy 

 of quotation in the history of Conchology, and it was the 



* " T)c Aquatilibus conchis, aliisqne animalibus libellus." — "De Pur- 

 purea, ah animali tcstacco fusa, de hoc ipso animali aliisque varioribus 

 testaccis quibusdam tractatus." 



t Sec Cuvier, Hist, des Sc. Nat. ii. 98, &c. 



J Hallcr, however, asserts that Gesner was the first who formed a mu- 

 seum. Smith's Tracts, p. C6. Deshayes ascribes the origin of museums to 

 the apothecary, who exposed to vulgar gaze unusual objects to attract notice 

 and make money. — Trait. Element, i. 49. The reader will be reminded by 

 this of Shakspeare's character of the apothecary, and of his rare collection. 



K K 



