: A Manual of Conchology According to the System Laid Down by Lamarck with the Late Improvements by De Blainville. Exemplified and Arranged for the Use of Students. by Wyatt Thomas - Mollusks

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A MANUAL OF CONCHOLOGY, ACCORDING TO THE SYSTEM LAID DOWN BY LAMARCK, WITH THE LATE IMPROVEMENTS BY DE BLAINVILLE. EXEMPLIFIED AND ARRANGED FOR THE USE OF STUDENTS.

BY THOMAS WYATT, M.A.

NEW-YORK:

HARPER & BROTHERS, CLIFF-STREET.

Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1838, by

THOMAS WYATT,

in the Clerk's Office of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.

INTRODUCTION.

Conchology or Testaceology is a numerous and beautiful branch of Natural History, treating of the testaceous covering of animals; perhaps none but the department of Flora can vie with it in variety, symmetry of form, and rich colouring. It has ever excited admiration, and obtained a prominent situation in the cabinet; and so great are the facilities afforded at the present day to procure specimens and obtain a knowledge of this science, that it has become one of the requisites of a finished education. Shells are found in all parts of the world, both on land and in water; but the most beautiful and valuable species are found between the tropics.

At first they were regarded as pleasing curiosities, and prized only on that account; but the investigations of scientific men have proved that the study of this science is not only interesting, but useful. Much valuable information has already been obtained, and, from the investigations of modern naturalists, much more may be anticipated.

So intimate is the connexion between Conchology and Geology, that a knowledge of the one is indispensable to the study and acquirement of the other. The geologist will draw much advantage from a close study of the testaceous covering of molluscous animals to aid him in determining the identity or the superposition of the different strata of the earth and the extraordinary changes it has undergone; for, as Bergman elegantly says, "fossil shells, coral, and wood are the only three remaining medals of Creation." He will see in the innumerable quantity of these animals, succeeding each other from generation to generation in the depth of the seas, one of the evident causes of the growth and increase of islands and continents.

But man may find in the knowledge of Mollusca applications still more direct to his well being in society, both as to the advantages and disadvantages to be derived from them: thus a great number of species are proper for food, as oysters, mussels, &c., which are objects of commercial speculations. The Pinna furnishes the Italians with materials for a rich dress, and the pearl, so much prized by the Orientals, by princes, and particularly by the ladies, as a modest and beautiful ornament, is produced by a disease of the animals in certain species of shells. It was this knowledge which made the celebrated Linnaeus imagine that it was possible to form an artificial pearlery in the rivers of Sweden. The mother of pearl, so much employed as an ornament in articles of luxury, is only the interior lining of certain univalve or bivalve shells. Painting draws from some of these animals many colours, valuable not so much for their beauty as their usefulness, as Chinese ink and sepia.

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