SHELLS. 



19 



that can be squeezed flat between the fingers, and 

 whose bodies are no harder than the human 

 tongue. Formerly, the external ciiaraoters of 

 shells were the only object of the collector; 

 and the conchologist, as he was termed, might 

 have, and very often did have, a large collection 

 of valuable shells, without the least idea of the 

 form, food, habits, or development of the creature 

 that secreted them. Now, however, those who 

 examine a shell are not satisfied unless they know 

 something of the creature that inhabited it, and 

 from whose substance it was formed : and so this 

 branch of Natural History has leaped at once out 

 of the mere childish toy of conchology into the 

 maturer science of malacology. The former 

 treated merely of shells, and therefore excluded 

 the vast army of molluscs, that wear no shells at 

 all ; but the latter treats especially of the animal, 

 considering the shell to be of secondary im- 

 portance. 



And yet, even though the shell is considered 

 to be inferior to the animal by whom it was 

 secreted, much more attention is paid to the 

 shell itself than was the case in the old concho- 

 logical times. In those days the mere shape and 

 colours of the shell were the characteristics by 

 which its name and place in the system were 

 c2 



