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INTRODUCTION. 



The study of Shells, or testaceous animals, is a branch of natural history which, 

 although not greatly useful to the mechanical arts, or the human economy, is, 

 nevertheless, by the beauty of the subjects it comprises, most admirably adapted 

 to recreate the senses, to improve the taste or invention of the Artist, and, finally and 

 insensibly, to lead to the contemplation of the great excellence and wisdom of the 

 Divinity in their formation. The intricacy of structure, and predisposing arrange- 

 ment in the greater number of them, are truly wonderful ; but in none, perhaps, so 

 much as in the Nautilus, or Sailor shell, which, by being gifted with what answers 

 the purposes of a sail and oars, can raise itself to the surface of the ocean, and skim 

 along it with surprising facility. 



There is little doubt that shells were used by the ancients as drinking cups, in the 

 celebration of their religious rites and public festivals, as they are at the present day 

 amongst the islanders of the Southern Ocean : the celebrated purple dye of the 

 Tyrians, so often noticed in the writings both of poets and historians, was procured 

 from a shell ;* and from the same source may have been derived many of the 

 richest and most elegant ornaments of ancient architecture, amongst which may be 

 reckoned the Vitruvian scroll, and the frett of a square form, at present so very 

 general in mouldings and other decorations, since the prototype of these forms are 

 to be found only in certain species of shells; neither is it improbable, that the first 

 idea of the obelisk was borrowed from the genera Cerithium, Terebra, and Aculea ; 

 while the Trochus may have suggested the pyramid, as no two forms whatever can 

 be more similar. But the most remarkable coincidence of all, is in the form of the 

 Ionic capital or volute of the Grecian architects, which is obviously an adoption of 

 that of the Cornu Ammonis, or Ram's-horn, of which we are informed by Sonnini, 

 that amazing large specimens are found inserted in and adhering to rocks ; this sin- 

 gular fossil shell, differing in its particular minutiae from the known recent speci- 

 mens, in the circumstances of shape, and its vast size, may very properly be classed 

 under the genus Argonauta. But, not to indulge farther in conjectures, I shall pro- 

 ceed to state the arrangement under which the shells delineated in the present Work 

 are placed. 



The families of shells may be classed very conveniently under the two principal 

 characters or divisions, of Univalves and Bivalves.-f 



* Under the genus Polyplex, in the following work, is delineated a shell found upon the eastern coasts of the 

 Mediterranean Sea, which, from the most probable accounts of its colouring powers, may be supposed to be the 

 ancient Tyrian Murex ; and the appearance of the shell in some degree tends to confirm this opinion, as it is richly 

 striped with purple internally. 



•\ The shells, or rather animals, described by former authors under a separate division, (by the name of ; 

 Multivalves,) it seems impossible to denominate shells ; for, strictly speaking, they must be considered as horny 



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