PREFACE. 



ing parts, if they should appear, must be hailed by the 

 friends of science with much less confidence, although 

 with equal admiration and gratitude. 



The system of classification desirable to the Geologist, 

 is that by which a shell may be readily and accurately 

 determined, without considering the animal which has 

 inhabited it. Such a system is equally convenient to the 

 Conchologist, when each genus is followed by a reference 

 to the place which the animal occupies in the Natural 

 System, which should always be adjoined. To be unable 

 to determine the shell, unless we found the animal, would 

 be like having no other aid than Crystallography for the 

 study of Minerals. 



These elements are principally compiled from Cuvier's 

 <e Memoir es pour servir a VHistoire et a V Anatomie des 

 Mollusques" and the 2d vol of the " Regne Animal" 

 of the same author; M. Lamarck's Mernuitoe mr les Fos- 

 siles des Environs de Paris?' M. Brongniart's u Memoir es 

 sur des Terrains qui paroissent avoir ete formes sous VEau 

 Douce" and others on the same subjects, scattered 

 through the 22 quarto volumes of the " Annales du Mu- 

 seum " M. Blainville's and M. Defrance's articles in the 

 " Dictionnaire des Sciences Naturelles /' M. deFerussac's 

 " Histoire Naturelle, generale et particulierej, des Mol- 

 lusques Terrestres et Fliwiatiles /' and many other rare 

 and costly works, collected in the splendid library of 

 Baron Cuvier, to which I have had access at all hours, 

 with the liberty of taking home whatever I pleased, for 

 the last two years. 



The figures which illustrate the system of M. de Ferussac 

 have been copied from those which accompany his work, 

 with the exception of such as were to be found in the 

 Museum. Almost all the other figures of the recent, and 

 some few of the fossil shells, have been drawn from the, 

 objects themselves ; which I have invariably been per- 

 mitted to take home from the Museum for that purpose, 

 without being limited either to time or number. I have 

 occasionally been favoured with such specimens as were 

 not to be found there, from the cabinets of MM. Lamarck 

 and Dufresne. 



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