History of Conchology. 249 



cabinets of shells became most prevalent. " Rich individuals stu- 

 died to outvie one another in that country, as much in the expen- 

 siveness and extent of their collections, as in the splendour of their 

 equipages and retinue ; and the sums which were given for a Cedo- 

 milli or a Wentletrap, would appear too enormous to deserve belief, 

 if such accounts were not authenticated by the most respectable 

 writers of that day. Rumphius 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 disposition 

 had engendered ; and it is not easy to determine whether the good 

 which it cannot be denied conchology derived from this zeal of col- 

 lectors, was not overbalanced by the character of virtuosism it was 

 calculated to fix on all its cultivators, and the new direction which 

 it unquestionably gave to their studies, t 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 



nately for the reputation of this University among naturalists, a very small part 

 of the collection is now remaining. ' Such,' says Mr Pennant, * has been the 

 negligence of past times, that scarce a specimen of the noble collection deposited 

 in it by Sir Andrew Balfour is to be met with, any more than the great additions 

 made to it by Sir Robert Sibbald.'— (Scotch Tour, 1766, p. 246.) Such is too 

 often the fate of public collections ; and so slight or so transient is any respect 

 for the laudable intentions of generous individuals towards public bodies, that 

 common care is rarely taken to preserve from destruction what escapes the hand 

 of peculation and robbery." — Lin. Trans, vii. p. 144. 



• Lin. Trans, vii. p. 150 — " In 1733, at the sale of Commodore Lisle's 

 shells at Langford's, four Wentletraps were sold for L. 75, I2s." Da Costa's 

 Elem. of Conchology, p. 204 — " A specimen of Conus cedonuUi has been 

 valued at 300 guineas." Dillwyn's Catalogue, p. 376 — " Ammiralium varietates 

 nitidas, Turbinis scalaris et Ostrece Mallei iemulas nobilitavit docta ignoran- 

 tia, pretiavit quam patiuntur opes stultitia, emtitavit barbara luxuria," — Lin. 

 Syst. 1167. 

 i" They did not of course escape the observation and the lash of the satirist. 

 " But what in oddness can be more sublime 

 Than Shane, 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. 



