150 Miscellaneous . 



anc£ in the advancement of the scientific character of the Na- 

 tional Collection of Zoology every naturalist, and especially that 

 large class of the cultivators of science who are interested in the 

 progress and application of conchology, must fully appreciate. 

 We have endeavoured to obtain information as to the present 

 extent and scientific value, as well as facts regarding the history 

 of the formation of Mr. Curaing^s remarkable collection, and 

 we have been favoured by the following letter on the subject 

 from Prof. Owen, who was one of the trustees of Mr. Cuming's 

 museum during his absence in the Philippine Islands, and who 

 has described the anatomy of some of the rarer animals of the 

 shells in the Transactions of the Zoological Society. 



To Richard Taylor, Esq., FX.S. S,c. 



My dear Sir, — I send agreeably with your desire the following 

 sketch of the nature and extent of Mr. Hugh Cuming's concholo- 

 gical museum, and I can only regret that my time will not permit 

 me to do more justice to a subject on which all naturahsts, and 

 those more especially who are engaged in the advancement of con- 

 chology, and concerned in its important relations to other branches 

 of science, must feel deeply interested. 



The Memorial on the Cumingian Collection of Shells, signed by 

 naturalists, geologists and comparative anatomists, which was com- 

 municated to the Trustees of the British Museum, on the occasion 

 of the proposition for the sale of the collection made by Mr. Cuming 

 in 1846, well described its important scientific value and applica- 

 tions. 



At present the collection contains upwards of 19,000 species or 

 well-marked varieties ; and these are represented by about 60,000 

 specimens. Not only is every specimen entire, but choice and perfect 

 of its kind, as respects form, colour, texture and other characters 

 that give it value in the eyes of the practised shell-collector. 



In affirming from my own personal knowledge, and from authentic 

 sources of information, that no public collection in Europe possesses 

 one-half the number of species of shells that are now in the Cu- 

 mingian collection — one -third the number would be the correct state- 

 ment as regards the national museums in Paris and Vienna — you 

 may judge of the vast proportion of rarities and unique specimens 

 possessed by Mr. Cuming. It is this which has given him for some 

 years past the command, so to speak, of all the conchological cabi- 

 nets in Europe. He is better known, and his labours more truly 

 and generally appreciated, in any city or town in Europe having a 

 public natural- history museum and its zoological professor, than in 

 busy London. 



Mr. Cuming, in his annual visits to the continent, carries with 

 him the inferior duplicates of his rarities, representing species, with 

 the sight of which the eyes of the foreign naturalist are gladdened 

 for the first time. They open their treasures to him in return, and 

 from most of the collections of Europe Mr. Cuming has borne away 



