1 88 NATURAL HISTORY. 



later time. The name of Sowerby, moreover, is that of a 

 series of naturalists and artists, who devoted themselves 

 especially to natural history, mineralogy, and botany ; and 

 of whom three were more particularly concerned with 

 conchology. One of these is James Sowerby, originally 

 an artist, who was born in 1757, and died in 1822. His 

 great work is the ' Mineral Conchology of Great Britain,' 

 which deals with the fossil shells of our islands. James 

 de Carle Sowerby was the son of the preceding, and 

 followed in his footsteps. He was born in 1787, and died 

 in 1850, and continued the publication of the 'Mineral 

 Conchology.' Lastly, in more recent times, conchologists 

 have been indebted to George Brettingham Sowerby for a 

 work on the 'Genera of Recent and Fossil Shells,' a 

 'Manual of Conchology,' and a 'Thesaurus Conchy- 

 liorum.' 



There has, however, been no naturalist of the present 

 century to whom conchological students in general have 

 been more deeply indebted than to Samuel Woodward, who 

 was born in 1821, and died in 1865, and who therefore 

 does not strictly fall into the period now under considera- 

 tion. His ' Manual of the Mollusca,' of which the first 

 edition appeared in 1841, has a world-wide reputation as 

 one of the most philosophical and comprehensive treatises 

 on a single large group of animals ever published in such 

 a moderate compass. It is a model of everything which 

 such a manual should be. 



Entomology an even more favoured subject than orni- 

 thology commanded many votaries during the period 

 here in question; and among them some of the most 

 distinguished entomologists Britain has yet produced. 



