242 Conchology. 



Among the immense variety of shells with which we are ac- 

 quainted, some are taken up out of the sea, or found on its shores 

 in all their perfection and beauty; their colors being all disposed 

 by nature upon the surface, and their natural polish superior to 

 anything that art could give. Where nature is in herself thus 

 perfect, it would be madness to attempt to add anything to her 

 charms: but in others, where the beauties are latent, and covered 

 with a coarse outer skin, art is to be called in; and the outer veil 

 being taken off, all the internal beauties appear. 



Among the shells which are found naturally polished are the 

 porcelains, or cowries; the cassanders; the dolia or conchas 

 globosae, or tuns; some buccina, the volutes and the cylinders, 

 or olives, or, as they are generally though improperly called, the 

 rhombi; excepting only two or three as the tiara, the plumb, and 

 the butter-tub rhombus, where there is an unpromising film or sur- 

 face, hiding a great share of beauty within. Though the gener- 

 ality of the shells of those genera are taken out of the sea in all 

 their beauty, and in their utmost natural polish. There are several 

 other genera, in which all or most of the species are taken up 

 naturally rough and foul, and covered with an epidermis, or coarse 

 outer skin, which is often rough and downy or hairy. The 

 telUnas, the muscles, the cochleae, and many others are of this kind. 

 The more nice collectors, as naturalists, insist upon having all 

 their shells in their native and genuine appearance, as they are 

 found when living at sea; but others who make collections, hate 

 the disagreeable outsides, and will have all such polished. It 

 would be very advisable, however, for both kinds of collectors to 

 have the same shells in different specimens both rough and polished. 

 The naturahst would by this means, besides knowing the outsides 

 of the shell, be better acquainted with its internal characters than 

 he otherwise would be; while those who wish to have them pol- 

 ished, might compare the beauties of the shell, in its wrought 

 ' state, to its coarse appearance as nature gives it. How many 

 elegancies in this part of the creation must be wholly lost to us, 

 if it were not for the assistance of an art of this kind! Many 

 shells in their native state, are like rough diamonds; and we can 

 form no just idea of their beauties till they have been polished and 

 wrought into form. The safest way of removing the e])idermis 

 or outer skin from shells, is by a simple process discovered by 

 William Nichols, Esq. Lecturer on Natural Philosophy at London. 

 The shell from which the epidermis, is to be removed, should be 

 put into a vessel of water, with a quantity of quick lime, and boil- 

 ed for some time. The skin of the common muscle requires only 

 three hours boiling, while that of the Mya margaritifera or river 



