MOLLUSCA. 55 



structure, but the places which it frequents, and the food 

 which it consumes. Hence these characters may be appli- 

 ed with equal propriety in an artificial as in a natural me- 

 thod. But what opinion would we form of that ornitholo- 

 gist, who could readily inform us that the cormorant has 

 fourteen tail feathers, and the shag only twelve, but who 

 was ignorant of the haunts of these birds, their food, and the 

 number of their young* We might prize him as a com- 

 panion in surveying a museum, but he is alike a stranger to 

 science and nature. 



Nor can we feel more respect for the student of mere 

 shells. He may be able to tell us the number of whorls in 

 a spiral univalve, or the form of the hinge in a bivalve ; but 

 if he knows not the nature of the organs of respiration, di- 

 gestion, and reproduction of the animal to which the shell 

 belongs, and contentedly remains in tin's ignorance, he has 

 yet to learn the value of method in natural history. He 

 cherishes with mistaken fondness the maxim of Linnaeus, 

 " Nomina nosse oportet qui rem scire velit," while he over- 

 looks a more important object, expressed in the motto of 

 the Linnsean Society, " Natures discere mores." 



These remarks apply to the conchological labours of Lin- 

 naeus and his followers, who have devoted their whole at- 

 tention to the arrangements of the shells, without attending 

 to the animals. We know that some of the admirers of 

 the Swedish naturalist presume to say, " But our great au- 

 thor was not wholly inattentive to the creatures for which 

 the beautiful and endless diversified receptacles that he had 

 characterised were designed. Among the generic marks 

 was included the name of the molluscous inhabitant ; or, 

 where the animal differed from any which had a place in 

 other parts of his system, he described it at length." (Linn, 



