19° JOURNAL OF CONCHGLOGY. 



BRITISH PIONEERS IN RECENT CONCHOLOGICAL 

 SCIENCE. 



J. COSMO MELVILL, M.A., F.L.S. 



Being his Valedictory Address as President ok the Conchological Society 

 FOR THE Year iSSq. 



1662 — 1858. 



It must always seem extraordinary that, considering the 

 attractiveness of the Mollusca even to those who have no 

 intention of seriously studying the science, so many cycles 

 of this world's history rolled away before any attempt was made 

 to collect and classify them. 



Of course, we grant that some of the more promising 

 regions of research were then terrte or rather viaria incognita, 

 but still the Mediterranean and Red Seas afford plenty of striking 

 shells. The probable cause lies in the absolute inutility of so 

 large a proportion to serve either as articles of food, manu- 

 facture, or ornament, for if we except a few, e.g., the clam, 

 oyster, mussel, whelk, and cockle, esculent species, and the 

 cameo-shell (Cassis and Turbinella) and pearl oyster (Melea- 

 grina and Unio) used in manufacture, and for decorative 

 purposes, hardly one can lay claim to any intrinsic value in the 

 arts and sciences. We must not forget, however, to mention 

 the Murex, two Mediterranean species of which, M. brandaris 

 and trunculus, supplied the famous purple Tyrian dye, and it 

 has been reported that the symmetrical form of Turritella terebra 

 suggested to the philosopher Archimedes the idea of the screw. 



It is evident, notwithstanding, that shells were not 

 altogether unnoticed, witness the following lines of the poet 

 Lucretius, when, in his grand poem ' Ue rerum natura ' he 

 argues about the natures and affinities of matter, and claims 



J.C., vi., Jan., 1890, 



