"262 History of Conch ology. 



and in particular to the knowledge of the naked mollusca. The de- 

 termination of the class, its principal divisions and subdivisions, all re- 

 pose upon my own observations, for the magnificent work of M. Poli 

 aided me no further than by some descriptions, and some anatomies 

 useful to my end, and these were confined to the multi valves and bi- 

 valves. I have verified all the facts which that able anatomist has 

 furnished me, and, as I think, have determined with more accuracy 

 the functions of some organs. I have also sought to characterize the 

 animals to which the principal forms of shells belong, and to classify 

 these in accordance with the organization of their inhabitants, leaving 

 the ulterior divisions of them into genera and subgenera, to those 

 who devote themselves in particular to this kind of work." * 



Did not our pages, on which we have already too much transgressed 

 with this subject, forbid the attempt, we would gladly go on to trace the 

 effects of Cuvier's example and views. It must suffice to say, that they 

 raised the character of the conchologist, and gave a more philosophical 

 tone to his pursuit ; they originated a new school, with better directed 

 zeal, and a higher aim, and numbers became disciples when they saw 

 that here as much satisfaction and profit was to be reaped as in the study 

 of almost any other class, for it may be laid down as an axiom that 

 no branch of natural history, however apparently trifling, " but 

 may be ennobled by the manner in which it is pursued ; and when the 

 student carries all its wonders back to the one Great Source, the 

 smallest worm and the most beautiful of his own species will afford 

 him subjects for the deepest contemplation." For some years Cu- 

 vier's system, even in France, divided the favour of naturalists with 

 the more artfully constructed one of Lamarck, remarkable for the 

 precision and neatness of all its details, and its better adaptation to the 

 purposes of the mere nomenclaturist ; and in Britain we knew little 

 of Cuvier, until the peace of 1816 had restored a friendly corre- 

 spondence between the men of science of Europe, and it was some 

 years later still until his merits as a naturalist were appreciated, and 

 his system began to weaken and dissolve our Linnsean prejudices. 

 To indicate the modifications which this system has been made to 

 undergo in the hands of Lamarck, Gray, Blainville, Oken, Latreille, 

 &c. is here impossible ; — the same with the improvements proposed 

 on the arrangement of the Cephalopodes and Brachiopodes by Owen, 

 of the Pteropodes by Sander Rang, of the pulmoniferous Gasteropo- 

 des by De Ferrusac, of the Bivalves by Deshayes, and of the shelless 

 Acephales by Savigny. We must pass over in the same silence the 



* Regne Animal, i. Pref. p. xxvi. 



