History of 'Conchology. 263 



anatomical and physiological discoveries which so remarkably distin- 

 guish the few last years, and have given that fulness and perfection 

 to the knowledge of molluscans which Linnseans were never weary 

 of telling us was unattainable. Berkeley, Blainville, Bojanus, Carus, 

 Chamisso, Deshayes, D'Orbigny, Dumas, Grant, Gray, Jacobson, 

 Milne-Edwards, Muller, Owen, Lund, Sander Rang, Roux, Savigny, 

 Sharpey, Unger, Vanbeneden, Armand de Quatrefages, Prevost, — 

 to these naturalists our homage is justly due for their labours in this 

 field, which, however, we should remember, was comparatively bar- 

 ren, until Cuvier made evident its natural productiveness, and taught 

 us to plough deeper in the soil. 



Such is a very hurried sketch of the history of a department of 

 the animal kingdom, to which we confess our partiality, and to which 

 the works placed at the head of this article are intended to introduce 

 us. None of them come up to our ideas of what an ' Introduction' 

 ought to be, and in none of them will the student find a compendious 

 view of the actual state of conchology in reference to the anatomy, 

 physiology, economy, and systematic classification of its members. 

 Blainville's Manuel, indeed, is the only one which makes this pre- 

 tence, and had it been complete (which it was not) at the date of its 

 publication, subsequent discovery would now have rendered it defec- 

 tive. It is, however, even in its plan and design discommendable as 

 an introductory work. The division of it into two books, one appro- 

 priated to the animals, and the other to the shells, seems to us un- 

 fortunate, as tending to divide what ought ever to be studied in close 

 connection ; and his plan of describing the anatomy of the organs 

 in distinct and widely apart chapters, from the functions of them, is 

 liable to the same objection. His chapters considered separately are 

 dry and sketchy, — no spirit in his style, nor vigour in his delinea- 

 tions, no wandering into pleasant digressions, no indulgence in higher 

 and aberrant contemplations, when the wonders of stracture — its 

 beauties and singularities open upon him in such a manner as might 

 seem enough " to excitate the earthiest soul." Indeed Blainville has 

 made his book rather an exposition of his own views, and of his own 

 system, than an introduction to what was known and done by others ; 

 and as his system has not been adopted, nor his nomenclature ap- 

 proved, the value of the work is thus much lowered to a student. 

 With these deductions, however, he will find in it much information 

 not accessible otherwise in so compendious a form, — a manual he will 

 not often read, but which he must frequently consult. 



Sander Rang might, without a charge of immodesty, have inscrib- 

 ed on his title-page, the " parva sed apta" which Mr Swainson has. 



