8 SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION 



interrupted, alas ! by the sad death of Schultze, after which the 

 cares and infirmities of old age prevented Boltenius from finishing 

 it himself and making known to the learned world an ingenious 

 method of conchology, worked out with wonderful keenness of 

 perception. The solid foundation of this method rested upon the 

 simple and excellent idea that nature, to form the varied shells 

 of testacea had started with a simple and flattish covering and 

 then had gradually developed more spirality in other forms — 

 becoming by degrees more elegant and more intricate — of the 

 univalve, bivalve and multivalve shells — an ingenious plan, worthy 

 alike of the author of nature and of the author of the system. 



Would that the late Boltenius had left some sketch of the 

 natural orders and genera under which shells would find a place in 

 accordance with this principle of classification, and which we could 

 insert in our preface, to the great assistance of those who are 

 competent to read the following catalogue with understanding! 

 Now, alas ! there remain only new genera of testacea, most of them 

 established according to a deep and genuine science of conchology ; 

 nothing but the scattered parts, as it were, of a system. Here the 

 reader might easily be puzzled regarding shells in the collection, 

 merely on account of the variety of forms and colors, especially 

 when with no synonymy to help he seeks to determine species, 

 yet nevertheless a learned and really systematic judge will profit 

 much in comparing the genera of Boltenius with the classifica- 

 tions of Linnaeus and other authors. 



Nothing further surely is to be desired unless it be that this 

 collection of shells should not be scattered by auction but should 

 come intact into the hands of someone who might be both able and 

 willing to utilize the incredible toil, which our Boltenius endured 

 in preparing and equipping this immense museum of conchology, 

 to the honor of a great mind and the enrichment of natural history. 



Other facts necessary for the reader and lover of shells to know 

 will be made plain in the following preface in the vernacular. 



M. Aut. Aug. Henr. Liechtenstein. 



Hamburg, September io, 1798. 



