1 Jn Smithsonian Institution for 
* .i ’ . i; ^ ^ well-known concliologist, remarks in reference 
to the Manual of the Mollusca,’ “ a comparison of all ordinary books with 
winch, only amazes us more and more at the vast amount of patient 
investigation, of accumulated facts, and of philosophic judgment, which its 
author has condensed into a small and cheap volume.” 
In an article vvliich niy father jniblishecl in ‘ Ilecreative Science ’ 
for February, 1861, be enumerates several works wbicb would be 
serviceable to “the shell-collector in London,” and observes: 
‘“Our own’ manual, we must refer to (as people speak of children who 
have cost them pain and trouble) with mingled satisfaction and regret. J\Iore 
than seven thousand copies of it have been circulated, and it is now botli out 
of print and out of date, for in the last ten years an amount of conchological 
work has been done, which was altogether unjn-ecedented ; so many new 
sliells have been described and new genera proposed ; so many of the old 
names have been changed for better or worse ; new facts of structure and 
history made out and recorded, that tlie last published manual already 
requires revision in every page.” 
‘“We write in sand, our science grows, 
And, like the tide, our work o’erflows.’” 
Eventually over eleven thousand copies were sold, by wbicb the 
publishers must have realized at least £1000 : my lather never 
received more than £75. For a short time before his death he had 
been occupied in preparing a new edition of this work from the 
elaborate notes he had ready, mostly in his own interleaved coiiy. 
Unfortunately but little progress was made, and no portion of his 
OAvn work appears in the later editions, brought out by the publishers 
under an editor who, I believe, laid no claim to any special knowledge 
of the Mollusca. The w^ork indeed passed from the hands of 
M calc to the firm of Virtue & Co., and has since jiasscd through 
the hands of Messrs, fetrahan & Co. to those of Messrs. Lockwood 
iC' Co. 
A valuable addition to the original work was the Appendix by 
Mr. Ilalph Tate (now Professor of Natural Science in the 
University of Adelaide), published by Virtue k Co. in 1868. 
It will always be a matter of regret that, owing to the short- 
sightedness and parsimony of the publishers, the new edition Avas 
not placed in the hands of my uncle, Mr. Henry Woodward. This 
is not, perhaj)s, surprising when I learn from a communication 
made to my father, that Virtue, the publislici', liad “ oll'ercd £10 for 
