CONcrroLOGY. 



109 



nature, presents an interest beyond the mere scale of 

 enjoyment which a contemplation of them enlarges. 

 It leads him, by analogous reasoning in comparative 

 anatomy, the more clearly to understand some of the 

 laws and economy of animal life, and to account for 

 many of those paradoxical causes of vital existence 

 which these inferiorly organised creatures illustrate. 

 Of the benefits derived by mankind from shells, or 

 rather their animals, less is probably known at this 

 moment than could be wished, or might be expected ; 

 they will only be developed by time. As articles of 

 food, numberless species are well known. We need 

 scarcely mention the oyster, for which our native 

 shores have so long been famous ; since, so far back 

 as the beginning of the second century, the Roman 

 poet Juvenal, while satirising the epicure Montanus, 

 thus speaks of them : 



" He, whether Circe's rock his oysters bore, 

 Or Lucrine lake, or distant Richboro's shore, 

 Knew at first taste." 



These, with muscles, cockles, scallops, &c., form a 

 considerable branch of commerce and wealth to the 

 enterprising fisherman ; an account of which will 

 be amply given in the alphabetical arrangement. 

 Many other species of shell-fish might also be enu- 

 merated, affording an agreeable and nutritive food 

 to nations compelled by local situation, uncon- 

 genial climate, or ignorance of civilised improve- 

 ment, to seek from ocean's bounteous store, a natu- 

 ral and never-failing source of subsistence, frequently, 

 indeed, the principal, if not the only one within their 

 reach. In the days of Roman epicurism we have 

 already enumerated snails and oysters, to these 

 may be added Echini and Balani, for we are told, 

 that at the famous supper given by Lentulus when 

 he was made Flamen Martialis, or" Priest of Mars, 

 these and other shell-fish formed a part of the delica- 

 cies presented to the guests ; and Pennant satirically 

 observes, they seemed to have been eaten by the holy 

 personages, priests and vestals, invited on the occasion, 

 as a whet for the second course. The Echinus, how- 

 ever, is a crustaceous and not a testaceous mollusc, as 

 we shall explain under its description : we have tasted 

 both this and the ar>iacle,but not possessing Roman 

 stomachs, or perhaps from the want of classical cooks, 

 we confess they appeared anything but eatable to 

 our vulgar taste. As baits to catch fish, many species 

 of shells are used ; we have, ourselves, captured many 

 a bright mackerel and whiting with no other lure than 

 a small piece of mother-o'-pearl suspended from the 

 hook. The amphibious mammalia, sea-birds, and 

 even many fishes, derive a large portion of their sus- 

 tenance from shell fish, which tends to check, with- 

 out destroying altogether, the innumerable broods 

 hourly brought into existence. Except as food, shell- 

 fish contribute but little to supply the other wants of 

 mankind. The Pinna marina does, it is true, furnish 

 with its byssus, or beard as it is commonly called, a 

 silky filament, in sufficient abundance to be fabricated 

 into gloves, stockings, and some few other articles of 

 wearing apparel, but not in such quantities as to 

 render them articles of general use, or commercial 

 speculation, beyond the value attached to them as 

 museum rarities. The Janthina, Buccinum, and other 

 shells, indicate the presence of a strong colour- 

 ing matter, and a species of Purpura produced the 

 highly valued Tyrian purple dye, which formed 

 a very costly article in the catalogue of Roman 



extravagance ; but the same colour being now ob- 

 tained by the chemical effects of mineral or vegetable 

 matter, at a trifling expense, has, of course, superseded 

 its use. In early treatises on medicine, shells ranked 

 as useful agents ; they, however, now form no part of 

 the pharmacopoeia, common chalk being equally effica- 

 cious. In countries where the manufacture of glass 

 is either unknown or too expensive to be generally 

 used, a shell of the genus P lacuna is substituted to 

 the present day, its extremely thin valves permitting 

 the rays of light to pass partially through them. With 

 these, in China and Japan, the windows may be said to 

 be glazed. As a commercial circulating medium, 

 shells have been employed on the coast of Africa, 

 where sealed bags of the Cyprea monela (money cowry) 

 form tallies for certain sums ; thus exchanging hands 

 in the trading operations of uncivilised nations, as an 

 equivalent for coin, and redeemable by the party issu- 

 ing them with the same good faith that notes are 

 honoured by the firm on which they are drawn. As 

 articles of luxury and decoration, shells, from the most 

 remote period of history, have afforded personal 

 ornaments, in various ways, lo civilised and savage 

 people. With some they are distinctive marks of rank, 

 arid in the idolatrous worship of India, some species 

 are consecrated to ignorant superstition, by those 

 " who sit in darkness and who see no light." The 

 Avicula margaritifera, commonly called the mother- 

 of-pearl oyster, is universally well known as yielding 

 that beautiful iridescent substance, from which num- 

 berless elegant and useful trinkets are fashioned by 

 skilful workmen. It must be observed, however, 

 that the beautiful colours, like those of the Opal, 

 which they resemble, are not the effect of any pig- 

 ment or colouring matter, but occasioned by the 

 mechanical arrangement of the molecules, or atoms 

 of matter, constituting the lamellar substance of the 

 shell, being so distributed as to become capable of 

 decomposing the rays of light, and reflecting the 

 exquisite prismatic hues which all pearly or nacreous 

 shells exhibit. On this subject the philosophical 

 experiments of Brewster and others are highly 

 interesting. It is the animal of this shell, or a dis- 

 eased condition of it, which produces that modest but 

 highly coveted jewel, the Oriental pearl, the pride of 

 Europe's fairest daughters, or Afric's sable children 

 the gem that decks a monarchs brow, or graces native 

 innocence. In sacred writing, pearls are frequently 

 named as things of inestimable value. " No mention 

 shall be made of coral or of pearls, for the price of wis- 

 dom is above rubies ;" and in Matthew,our Saviour said, 

 " The kingdom of heaven is like a merchantman seek- 

 ing goodly pearls, who, when he had found one pearl 

 of great price, went and sold all he had and bought 

 it." Poets of every nation, but particularly those of 

 the eastern nations, have compared the objects of 

 their dearest affections to pearls, as the most invalu- 

 able things known, its Persian name Mervarid, or 

 globe of light, being constantly used in the hyper- 

 bolical language of oriental poetry. Our native 

 poets have also frequently alluded to pearls ; upon 

 the latin name of which (Margarita), Drumrnond, in 

 his poems, 1656, classically puns in the following 

 lines 



In shells and gold, pearles are not kept alone, 



A Margaret here lies beneathe a stone ; 



A Margaret that did excel! in worthe, 



All those bright gems the Indies dothe send forthe. 



Several other species of shells, both marine and 



