HISTORY OF CONCHOLOGY.
Of late years, the study of conchology has been pur sued with eagerness by the most eminent naturalists. Under their auspices, the science has assumed a consist ent and regular form. But let us not overlook the la bours of the ancients. They may justly claim the merit of having first directed the mind to this subject, and we add to their praise, for having sketched the outlines of the plan which has since been so successfully followed. In the enlightened ages of Greece and Rome natural his tory flourished, and the study of testaceous bodies occu pied the attention of the man of science, and afforded re creation to the politician.
Aristotle flourished 322 years before the birth of Christ. His writings are precious monuments of his wisdom, and justly entitle him to rank as the father of natural history. He is the first who presented the world with a system of conchology. The outlines of his plan have been copied by succeeding conchologists. To him we are indebted for the orders, univalves, and bivalves. Ile likewise added a third order, in which he included the rurbinated shells. Several of his genera are still re tained, such as Solen, Pinna, Xerita, and Pecten. We grant, that he was acquainted with but few species, and that he even admitted as such many of the cpercula of univalves; but when we consider the period during which he flourished, and the isolated nature of his la bours, and compare these with the information in natu ral history which he possessed, we arc astonished at his sagacity and wisdom.
Plinv lived in times more livourable for the cultivation of science. The extensive shores of the Roman empire, the Mediterranean, and the Red Sea, presented a line field to the enterprising conchologist. With all these ad vantages, little improvement was made by him in the science. His knowledge of species was more extensive than that of Aristotle, but his arrangement is unphiloso phical, and his descriptions are unsatisfactory. To him, however, belonged some merit as a conehologist. Ile paid considerable attention to the form and external as pect of shells, in which he has been imitated by succeed ing conchologists.
We must now pass over the dark ages which suc ceeded Roman greatness, in which science was degra ded and ignorance deified. And when we arrive at the
conclusion of the fifteenth century, we find little to in terest or instruct us. Vincentius, in the year 1494, published his Speculum Nature. In this work he treats of the Murex, the Purpeura, and the Ostrea, but makes no attempt at arrangement. lie borrows freely from his predecessors, Aristotle and Pliny, and supplies most liberally, from his own stores, notices of the supersti tious absurdities of his day.
Passing from the fifteenth to the sixteenth century, the conchological labours of three authors principally claim our notice. We here refer to the writings of Be Ion, Rondeletius, and Gesner. Belon, so famous for his travels in the East, and who was among the first of the learned men who travelled with the view of promoting science, published in the year 1553, at Paris, an octavo volume, entitled "De Aquatilibus." To his descrip tions of shells, he added a few tolerably faithful wooden representations.
Two years after the work of Belon had made its ap pearance, Rondeletius, professor of physic at Montpe lier, presented the world with his Universa Aquatilium Historia. His residence on the sea-coast afforded him an opportunity of examining the shells of the Mediter ranean, an opportunity of which he seems to have avail ed himself. Ile has described and figured upwards of an hundred testacea.
Conrad Gesner, in the year 1558, published his work, De Piscium et Aquatilium ?zimantiunz Historia. Inti mately acquainted with the knowledge of the ancients, and the observations of his immediate predecessors, Gesner, in this work, communicated much valuable in formation. IIis descriptions, in general, are ample, and his figures, though rude, are tolerably correct in the outline. He added several new species from the In dian and Arabian seas. To the threefold division of shells proposed by Aristotle, Gcsner added a fourth, which he termed Anomola. Into this class he placed his genera of Balani, Penicella marina, Tia& marini, and in company with these several crustaceous and mol luscous animals.