CONCHOLOGY AT THE DAWN AND CLOSE OF THE 

 NINETEENTH CENTURY. 



(The Presidential Address delivered at the Annual Meeting, Oct. 27th, 1900). 



By E. R. SYKES, B.A. 



At the close of the nineteenth century there arises a not unnatural 

 feeling of enquiry as to the state of our favourite science, and one 

 considers with a vivid interest the progress which has been made in 

 various branches during the past hundred years. While many coun- 

 tries were in the year 1800 totally unknown from a malacological point 

 of view, now we are in most cases able to form some general idea of 

 their fauna. Our knowledge of the sea below the shore-line, again, 

 has been obtained almost entirely during the past fifty years, and even 

 now we are but on the threshold of the wonders of the deep ocean. 

 Anatomical investigation, with a steadily increasing mass of material 

 to work upon, has made progress ; but the ideal classification, based 

 as it must be on a combination of malacological and conchological 

 characters, is yet to seek. 



The dawn of the century, like its close, was a time of wars and 

 rumours of wars, but with this difference, that while then war was 

 taking place in Europe, now it is in distant lands, and the adverse 

 influence on malacology is not so strong. 



In an address of the present nature it is impossible to survey the 

 entire field of molluscan work, and therefore it becomes necessary to 

 select a few special points to consider as a means of estimating our 

 progress and forming a comparison. Let us consider on the one hand 

 the student in the year 1800, and on the other the worker of to-day ; 

 let us compare their relative advantages and disadvantages. 



In the former case his text-book must have been the first edition 

 of Martini and Chemnitz' "Conchylien-Cabinet"; also he would study 

 the works of Linnreus, Gmelin, Rumphius, Bruguiere, Miiller, etc. ; 

 hardly any of Lamarck's or Cuvier's writings had yet appeared; collec- 

 tions were far fewer than at the present time, and correspondence with 

 other workers was slow and costly; further, the. pursuit of shell- 

 collecting demanded a far longer purse than at the present time. We 

 who can buy land shells from the interior of countries such as Borneo, 

 Japan, etc., for a few pence, find it hard to realize that in 1786, at the 

 Duchess of Portland's sale, Acavus hcemastovius for example, which 

 even then must have been fairly well known, fetched the price of 

 ^3 3s., and Anostoma ringetis ^8 i8s. 6d., compared with which a 

 "wentletrap" for ^^7 7s. and Conns mmsiacus for ;^i8 7s. 6d. must 

 be considered cheap. 



