THE CONCHOLOGIST’S FIRST BOOK: A SYSTEM OF TESTACEOUS MALACOLOGY, Arranged expressly for the use of Schools, IN WHICH THE ANIMALS, ACCORDING TO CUVIER, ARE GIVEN WITH THE SHELLS, A GREAT NUMBER OF NEW SPECIES ADDED, AND THE WHOLE BROUGHT UP, AS ACCURATELY AS POSSIBLE, TO THE PRESENT CONDITION OF THE SCIENCE. BY EDGAR A. POE. SECOND EDITION. WITH ILLUSTRATIONS OF TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTEEN SHELLS, PRESENTING A CORRECT TYPE OF EACH GENUS. PHILADELPHIA: PUBLISHED FOR THE AUTHOR, BY HASWELL, BARRINGTON, AND HASWELL, AND FOR SALE BY THE PRINCIPAL BOOKSELLERS IN THE UNITED STATES. 1840. Entered according to act of Congress, in the year 1839, by EDGAR A. POE, in the clerk’s office for the eastern district of Pennsylvania. Printed by Haswell, Barrington, and Haswell. PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. The term “_Malacology_,” an abbreviation of “_Malacozoology_,” from the Greek μαλακος, _soft_, ζωον, _an animal_, and λογος, _a discourse_, was first employed by the French naturalist De Blainville to designate an important division of Natural History, in which the leading feature of the animals discussed was the _softness_ of the flesh, or, to speak with greater accuracy, of the general envelop. This division comprehends not only the _Mollusca_, but also the _Testacea_ of Aristotle and of Pliny, and, of course, had reference to molluscous animals in general—of which the greater portion have shells. A treatise concerning the shells, exclusively, of this greater portion, is termed, in accordance with general usage, a Treatise upon Conchology or Conchyliology; although the word is somewhat improperly applied, as the Greek _conchylion_, from which it is derived, embraces in its signification both the animal and shell. Ostracology would have been more definite.