1848-49 HUGH CUMING’S COLLECTION OF SHELLS 313 
to indispose many minds towards a dispassionate 
appreciation of them.’ 
At this time Owen’s mind was much oc- 
cupied with another consideration. The re- 
markable collection of shells formed by Hugh 
Cuming had been offered for sale to the British 
Museum. The importance of this series was so 
great in Owen’s eyes that he wrote a strong 
appeal in January 1848, filling thirteen quarto 
pages, to Dean Buckland (a Trustee of the Bri- 
tish Museum), urging upon him the necessity of 
the purchase. From this appeal we give a few 
extracts : — 
‘ I may briefly state that this collection, as 
now offered to the British Museum, contains 
upwards of 19,000 species and varieties of shells, 
represented by about 60,000 specimens ; and that 
not only is every specimen entire, but choice and 
perfect of its kind, as respects form, texture, 
colour, and other characters that give it value in 
the eyes of the shell-collector. 
‘ As I can affirm from my personal knowledge, 
and from authentic sources of information, that no 
public collection in Europe possesses one-half the 
number of species of shells that are now in the 
Cumingian Collection . . . you may judge of the 
Vast proportion of rarities and unique specimens 
possessed by Mr. Cuming. It is this which has 
given him for some years past the command, so 
to speak, of all the conchological cabinets in 
