its native sea; inquires into the causes of shells being more abundant in the sea than on the land, and especially in the Indian Ocean, where they are also more beautifully pictured; why they are principally coloured on the exterior; wherefore they grow hard, seeing they are formed out of soft water; why they are twisted into many spires; why their snails have scarcely any diversity of members; why they are destitute of teeth, a heart, and bones; why nature denies them bile, and a liver, and a spleen; why they grow lean on the wane of the moon; why they are slow and stoltish; why the juice of the Pholas is luminous at night; why among their various colours the cerulean is not to be found; and other such problems hitherto unargued or propounded,—not omitting to inquire learnedly whether the Remora, that stayed the ship sent from Periander on a cruel voyage to the Cape of Gnidos, was actually the shell called in consequence the Venus-shell, and "in regard whereof, the inhabitants of Gnidos doe honour and consecrate the said Porcellane within their temple of Venus." The fourth and last part is occupied with the plates and figures described in the second, distributed into three classes, viz., the univalves not turbinate, the bivalves, and the turbinate univalves.

This slight outline of Bonanni's book is, perhaps, sufficient to enable you to appreciate its value, and the character of the writer. He was a Jesuit, with attainments and natural talents which, though respectable, certainly do not raise him above the level of his age,-perhaps he was under it,―better acquainted with the writings of his predecessors than of his contemporaries,-with the tastes of a virtuoso rather than of the man of science, skilful in all the vain logomachies of the schoolmen, and willing to give a ready assent to every thing which had ancient authority in its favour, but jealous and distrustful of all that was novel, and of every discovery that would carry knowledge forward.* Hence we find his anatomy of shell-fish inferior to that of Aristotle's, and his arrangement of them nearly the same; hence his advocacy of the doctrine of spontaneous generation, when his contemporary Redi had demonstrated its absurdity; hence his exclusive attention to the form and colour of shells to his total oversight of conchology as a branch of general physiology; hence also his fondness in propounding, his copiousness in solving occult questions which, if resolved, were of no utility,

"Trop attaché aux sentimens d'Aristote et des anciens, il n'a jamais voulu se rendre aux découvertes et aux experiences des modernes, particulièrement sur les Coquillages fossiles qu'il croit être des jeux de la Nature." —D'ARGENVILLE, Conchyliologie, p. 114.

but which were really beyond the province of human inquiry; hence the discussion wherefore shellfish were defective in this and that organ, without the slightest effort to ascertain whether that deficiency was a fact; and hence, in short, the reason that his volume contains not a single fact additional to the stock of knowledge in his own province, for we do not find that he has "treated of the formation of shells in a manner more philosophical than could have been expected at such a period," as Maton and Racket have asserted. But we have no wish to depreciate Bonanni, who, as we have already mentioned, was a man of learning and repute, and it is not discreditable to an author that he is affirmed not to have anticipated his age: we have drawn his character as we think fairly, and it is a fair representation, too, of the bulk of conchologists of his time, who obviously had little other object in the study than to indulge their love of virtuosoship.

Philippo Bonanni and Dr. Martin Lister were co-equals in the date of the publication of their works,† but in character they were men of remote eras. Lister was not less learned than the Jesuit, but of that he made no parade, and if he had drunk of the logic of the schoolmen, his tutored mind had seen its folly, for we never find him indulging in disquisitions about things inscrutable or useless. Full of the medical knowledge of the day, Lister betook himself, following the bent of his genius, to a patient anatomy of the animals which tenant and construct the shells that had won his admiration, and allowing for the state of anatomy then, we do not hesitate to say that his " Exercitationes" deserve to rank beside those of Poli and Cuvier. They are replete with accurate descriptions, not unmixed it is true with error, and some things he had overlooked and mistaken, but to mark these as blots on his diligence or reputation were uncandid and unfair to him who leaves the olden ways and deviates into a new country, in which he has to open up the roads. In every page Lister proves himself a laborious and observant anatomist and naturalist; while his disquisitions and digressions relative to the leaning of his discoveries on the

* Lin. Trans. vii. 136. They but echo the words of Sir J. E. Smith in his preliminary address to the Linnæan Society. See his Tracts, p. 102. + Lister's works were published between the years 1669 and 1697. Even the great Bentley allows that he was "learned."-See Monk's Life of Bentley, i. 130.

Willis was the first who anatomized an invertebrate animal with white blood (1672): he has given an anatomy of the oyster, which, however, is very imperfect.-See Cuv. Hist. des Sc. Nat. ii. 387.

physiological questions which divided the then medical world afford the fullest proof of his acuteness, judgment, and extensive learning. His works deserve the attentive perusal of every student in conchology, who will not fail to reap advantage from the task, even though he should go to it acquainted with the subject from recent authorities.

Lister was a true naturalist, and the first conchologist of decided eminence. His anatomical works show how clearly he understood that the structure of the animals was the main object of our study, its only sure foundation, and its best claim on our attention, but he was also very observant of the habits, instincts, and peculiarities of snail and shell, and was at the same time zealous to acquire an extensive and accurate knowledge of species, to which end he sacrificed. much. At his own cost, and with the labour of years, he completed and published a volume of plates, which is the pride of collectors, and is prized to this day for its utility. "His figures," Dr. Maton and the Rev. Mr. Racket tell us, "both in point of number and faithfulness, are with reason still held in such high estimation, that no person attached to this branch of natural history can advance in it without the constant use of them, nor without finding them preferable for reference to many more splendid engravings which have succeeded them." + "This admirable volume," says Dr. Turton," contains one thousand and fifty-five plates, besides twenty-one of anatomical figures, all drawn from original specimens by his two daughters, Susanna and Anna. Considering the state of natural science at the time this work was first issued, one hundred and thirty-three years since, it is impossible to contemplate this stupendous effort of genius and industry, without admiration at the grandeur of the design, and the correctness of its execution." +

It was Lister's intention, after the publication of this volume of plates, to have proceeded with an anatomical description of every family or genus in its proper order, if God should grant him life and leisure, but from adverse health he was not permitted to do more than to anatomize the terrestrial slugs and snails, some fresh-water Turbines, one or two

His opinions relative to the functions of the liver in Mollusca appear deserving of more attention than they have yet received.-See the Exer. Anat. de Cochleis, p. 79, &c.

+ Lin. Trans. vii. 138.

Conchological Dictionary, Introd. p. xvi.-The edition by Huddesford was published at the expense of the University of Oxford. "Dignum sane viris eruditis gratoque animo præditis consilium, seu naturalium rerum studiosorum votis satisfacere, sive auctoris egregii famæ et munificentiæ monumenta hæc renovare et seræ posteritati consecrare, voluerint."- Præf. iii.

of the marine Buccina, and a part of the Bivalves. The design was worthy of the man, and is a fine example of unwearied assiduity, which naught but a genuine enthusiasm could have kept alive. If perchance, says he, a stranger should be told that this man had devoted his years to the dissection of animalcules and snails, it might provoke his contempt or laughter, unless, indeed, the dissector was another Harvey, Malpighi, or a Redi; but I do not vehemently yearn for the applause of any one, having had my reward, for these exercises which were my pleasure and delight in youth, now that I am old they are my solace. And now when I am, from a failure of sight, compelled to use the microscope, and find that by its aid I can again enjoy myself in those studies which have been long denied to the unassisted eye, I rejoice greatly.*-We do love to dwell on the character of this man. Learned in his profession, and attaining its highest honours, for he was physician to Queen Anne, we now see him refocating his jaded spirits in the contemplation of his collections of shells, and enjoying with a rapture which minds framed like his only feel, all their beauties and symmetries and singularities;-again we see him examining with a fatherly pride and pleasure, the drawings which his daughters, who stand beside him, had laboured to finish before the duties of the day permitted their beloved parent to retire to his ease and study,†-and at a more leisured season, we see him, bent somewhat with age and infirmities, anatomizing with the zeal and skill of his youth, the creatures which he loved so well to study, now his keen eye kindling as the thought crosses him, that in this structure there was a ray which shed light on some obscurity in his own frame,-now lost in wonder at some display of a mechanism which can have but one author, while involuntarily he breathes the hymn,-"Oh altitudo! In his tam parvis, atque tam nullis, quæ ratio? quanta vis! quam inextricabilis perfectio!"

Lister then greatly advanced conchology, by rescuing it from the charge of frivolity, by an unrivalled series of illustrations of species, by many novel remarks on their habits, by a very complete history of the species of his native land, and chiefly by giving us some excellent essays on the structure and physiology of the Mollusca, which had been neglected since the time of Aristotle, for the isolated notices

Exercit. Anat. des Cochleis, p. 2.

"The engravings are very elegant and accurate, and were done by his two daughters, Susanna and Anne."-DA COSTA, Elem. Conchology, p. 26. See the Preface to the App. Hist. Anim. Ang.

of a few species by Willis, Redi, Harderus, and Swammerdam, however good, had no influence on conchology, while those of Lister, are epochal.* He was fully aware too of the importance of system in this study, but he had not critically examined its real objects and use, and his classification, though elaborate, claims no praise of superiority. The habitat affords the character for his primary divisions or books, hence, shells are divided into the land, fresh-water, marine bivalve, and marine univalve classes; and the mode in which these are subdivided, more resembles the synoptical tables, which the French botanists now frequently prefix to their floras, constructed without any regard to the affinities of the objects they approximate, and solely intended to hunt down a species, than what is usually understood by a system in natural history.†

So far as we can collect, the manner in which the shell is formed, and its relation to the snail, occupied no part of Lister's investigations; but previous to his decease the solution of the problem was discovered by the illustrious Reaumur. No experimental inquiry had hitherto been made on the subject, and the remarks in reference to it in conchological writers were scattered, vague, and hypothetical; while the opinion of better informed physiologists appears to have

* D'Argenville's character of Lister stands in a harsh contrast to that we have given. "On peut ici avancer hardiment que Lister, par les variations de sa méthode, a plus embrouillé l'histoire des Coquillages qu'il ne l'a éclaircie."-Lithologie, p. 22. Again,-" On peut dire que personne n'a jetté tant de confusion dans l'histoire des Coquillages que cet auteur, d'ailleurs bon physicien et grand médecin."-Conchyliologie, p. 114.-It is clear that D'Argenville was a mere amateur, and had no idea of a naturalist beyond his capacity of ticketing a cabinet. Da Costa has entered into a laboured defence of Lister against this attack, which, however unnecessary, has afforded him an opportunity of giving some curious particulars relative to Lister's great work of plates. See his Elements of Conchology, p. 2837. Maton and Racket have unjustly praised D'Argenville for modesty, in evidence of which they tell us that his work was at first anonymous; but, though his name does not appear, it is evident from the dedication that no concealment was intended or made; and we may very fairly question the modesty of a silly author, who speaks of his own work as un monument éternel." It is pleasing to read Deshayes' estimate of Lister's character and labours after this most injurious philippic of D'Argenville-Traité Elém. i. 42, &c.; see also Swainson's Discourse on the Study of Nat. History, p. 23.

"Had Lister but added an index of the numerous sections, parts, and chapters, to his work, his shells would be very easily traced, though they seem more confusedly placed than in any author."-DA COSTA, Elem. 82.

I De la Formation et de l'Acroissement des Coquilles des Animaux tant terrestres qu'aquatiques, soit de mer soit de rivière," in Mém. de l'Acad. Roy. des Sc. 1709.