256 



LAST YEARS IN ENGLAND. [Chap. VI. 



Davidson, from dissections of the existing species. For be it 

 observed that shells are not things without life, as they are 

 often taken to be by thoughtless admirers ; nor are they simply 

 the habitations of 6 shell-fish/ as ordinary observers consider 

 them : . . . they are truly organic structures, part and parcel 

 of the living animal, as truly as the nails of man, tire plumage 

 of birds, the armour of armadilloes and crocodiles, the scales 

 and cartilage of fishes, or the shell of the sea-urchin. . . . 



" It is only of late years that inquirers have even attempted 

 to gain information about the animals of shells. . . . Mollusks 

 [creatures with soft bodies without jointed limbs, including 

 most of the shell-makers] form one of the five great primary 

 divisions of the Animal Kingdom. " 



Malacology (the knowledge of soft creatures) is now taking 

 its place with conchology (the knowledge of shells). In the 

 Smithsonian collections many of the animals were preserved in 

 spirits. Philip says that sorting the alcoholics was a very long 

 and tedious process, and " working so long over strong spirits 

 makes me feel very queer. My wife wishes the alcohol at 

 Jericho; but I tell her I must take the bad with the good." 

 Sometimes even the shells brought him into a poisoned at- 

 mosphere, when he had to work on them with those to whom 

 smoking seemed a necessity ! 



His chief working-place was at the Museum : " How S. 

 would envy my large, light, airy, and orderly workroom. I 

 rarely speak a word. Even my boy * washes and sorts to 

 signs, and the door is kept locked." Unfortunately, the collec- 

 tion of the United States Exploring Expedition did not answer 

 his expectations. Hugh Cuming, Esq. ("the owner of the 

 largest collection of shells in the world"), was kindly helping 

 him in the naming. Philip wrote to Professor Baird (July 27): 

 " He keeps returning in the lists 6 Too bad 7 or ' No spe.' — 

 English collectors get such good things, that they turn up their 

 noses at dead shore shells. It is very hard work to me : all I 

 can do to pull through : and then, so unsatisfactory when done. 

 It is a religious rule with me, never to fret afterwards at what 



* One whom he had taken from the workhouse. 



