506 HISTORY OF CONCHOLOGY. 



given for a Cedonulli or a Wentletrap, would appear too 

 enormous to deserve belief, if such accounts were not authen- 

 ticated by the most respectable writers of that day. Rum- 

 phius himself informs us in his preface to the ( Amboinshe 

 Rariteitkamer/ that a shell described in this work cost no 

 less than 500 Dutch florins."* In all this, of course, there 

 was much less the love of science than the mere indulgence 

 of a peculiar taste or rivalry that wealth or a natural dispo- 

 sition had engendered : and it is not easy to determine whe- 

 ther the good which it cannot be denied conchology derived 

 from this zeal of collectors, was not overbalanced by the 

 character of virtuosoism, it was calculated to fix on all its 

 cultivators, and the new direction which it unquestionably 

 gave to their studies, f It was to this zeal that we owe 

 several expensive books of plates which were now prepared 

 for the press, and published under the auspices usually of 

 some wealthy amateur, and which, though too often occupy- 

 ing a prominent place in the history of conchology, have 

 little merit excepting what they derive from the draughts- 

 man and engraver. Hence also the repeated attempts on the 

 part of the more studious to arrange the objects in quest 

 after some novel or more convenient system, for without a 

 regular specification of their contents it was evident no cor- 



* Lin. Trans, vii. p. 150. " A specimen of Conus cedonulli has been 

 valued at 300 guineas." Dillwuri's Catalogue, p. 376. " Ammiralium vari- 

 etates nitidas Turbinis scularis et Ostrea Mallei semulas nobilitavit docta 

 ignorantia, pretiavit quam patiuntur opes stultitia, emtitavit barbara luxuria." 

 Lin. Syst. 1167. We have already mentioned the price given for specimens 

 of Scalaria pretiosa. A single specimen of the Carinaria has been known to 

 realise one hundred guineas. Sowerby's Conchol. Manual, p. 98. And 

 Chenu tells a prosy tale of a naturalist who gave a sum of between 3000 and 

 6000 franks for a specimen of the " Spondyle royal." The vagueness of the 

 price, and other internal evidence, prove the story to be certainly apocryphal. 

 Le^. Ele'm. p. 105. 



t They did not of course escape the observation and the lash of the 

 satirist : 



" But what in oddness can be more sublime 

 Than Sloane, the foremost toyman of his time ? 

 His nice ambition lies in curious fancies, 

 His daughter's portion a rich Shell inhances, 

 And Ashmole's baby-house is, in his view, 

 Britannia's golden mine, a rich Peru ! " YOUNG. 



It is almost needless to remind the reader of the amusing papers in ridicule 

 of the collectors in the Spectator and Rambler, but the irony of the latter 

 in his No. 82 is more than compensated by his defence of these " much 

 injured" men in his Nos. 84 and 85. Lucian long before had ridiculed the 



men " qui savent tout, qui connaissent la nature de Fame des huitres." 



CUVIER, Hist, des Sc. Nat. i. 243. 



