Produced by Richard Tonsing and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive) 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. ILLUSTRATED BY THIRTY-SIX PLATES CONTAINING MORE THAN TWO HUNDRED TYPES, DRAWN FROM THE NATURAL SHELL. NEW-YORK: HARPER & BROTHERS, CLIFF-STREET. 1838. 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.