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REVIEWS AND CRITICAL ANALYSIS. 



Manuel de Malacologie et de Conchyliologie. Par H. M. Du- 



crotay de Blainville. Paris, 1825. 8vo. with an Atlas of 100 



Plates. 

 Manuel de VHistoire Nalurelle des Mollusques et de leur Coquilles. 



Par M. Sander Rang. Paris, 1829. 24mo. 

 The Genera of Recent and Fossil Shells ; for the use of Students in 



Conchology and Geology. By George Brettingham Sowerby. 



London, v. y. 8vo. 

 The Elements of modern Conchology ; with Definitions of all the 



Tribes, Families, and Genera, Recent and Fossil. For the use 



of Students and Travellers. By William Swainson, Esq. 



Lond. 1835. Duod. 

 Elements of Conchology , according to the Linncean System, illustrated 



by 28 plates drawn from Nature. By the Rev. E. I. Burrow, 



A.M. F. L. S. Lond. 1836. 2d edit. 8vo. 



The foundations of Conchology were laid by Aristotle on those 

 broad and rational views which characterize all his works on the 

 Natural History of Animals, and which are worthy of his own re- 

 putation as a philosopher, and of the inquisitive and intelligent so- 

 ciety to whom they were delivered. The structure and habits of 

 the creatures embraced in this section of natural science were the 

 main objects of his study, while their relations to the other animated 

 entities by which they are surrounded, and their own mutual affi- 

 nities were not forgotten, although undoubtedly the classification of 

 them appears to have been considered a matter of secondary im- 

 portance, and, such as it is, was rather forced upon him than in- 

 vented to give some degree of method and generalization to the ex- 

 pression of the results of his inquiries. To censure this Father for 

 the incompleteness, or even his want of a conchological system, is 

 inconsiderately done, for it must be obvious that no system can be 

 otherwise than defective and artificial until discovery has, in a long 

 and lingering progress, collected together a large magazine of ma- 



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