226 REMARKS ON CONCHOLOGY AND MALACIIOLOGY. 
right, however, to mention that I received valuable aid from Lieut, 
Col. Watson of Madras, during his short residence in the Straits, 
particularly in discovering the localities of the land shells, many of 
which I had previously overlooked. 
It was formerly customary for writers on conchology to endeav¬ 
our to defend the science from the charge of frivolity, and such indeed 
might seem to be necessary when the pursuit, as the term implied, 
consisted merely in collecting and arranging the shelly coverings of 
testaceous animals, without any reference to their living inhabitants, 
whose interesting habits, and minute anatomical structure, have in 
these latter days claimed the attention of Naturalists. But from the 
time that these collateral studies were comprised, chonchology was 
entitled to be called a science, replete with proofs of Almighty intelli¬ 
gence, and well fitted to raise the mind of the creature to the Creator 
by the contemplation of the wonderful skill and beauty of His works* 
It is generally admitted that conchology has thrown much light 
on the more recent discoveries of the Geologist. By the help of orga¬ 
nic remains and principally fossil shells, he can read as in an ancient 
book, the early history of the world. In the words of Dr. Buck- 
land ; a The study of Organic Remains indeed forms the peculiar 
« feature and basis pf modern Geology, and is the main cause of 
a the progress this science has made, since the commencement of 
a the present century ,’ 7 
Ancient philosophers have in alt ages, turned their attention to the 
subject of conchology: the learned Aristotle 300 years before the 
Christian era formed the three divisions of Univalve, Bivalve and 
Multivalve shells. The elder Pliny who wrote at an early period 
of the Christian era, includes this branch of science in his voluminous 
work on* natural history which is still extant. The system of Lin¬ 
naeus, founded principally upon the exterior form of the shell, was 
the first generally recognised by naturalists in Great Britain j some 
of his distinguishing terms are still retained and many of the gene¬ 
ric names are unaltered 5 but the system of Lamarck based, for the 
most part, on the conformation of the soft parts, or anatomical 
‘structure of the animal, was afterwards more universally employed, 
our Continental neighbours taking the lead in adopting his classifica¬ 
tion. 
Cuvier makes the Mollusca one of his four great divisions of the 
