; INITI AMENTA CONCHOLOGICA ELEMENTS OF CONCHOLOGY, COMPRISING THE PHYSIOLOGICAL HISTOEY OE SHELLS THEIR MOLLUSCOUS INHABITANTS, THEIR STRUCTURE, GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION, HABITS, CHARACTERS, AFFINITIES, ARRANGEMENT, AND ENUMERATION OF SPECIES LOVELL REEVE, AUTHOR OP THE " Tliy The works The ' A.L.S etc CONCHOLDGIA ICONICA* desii'e which tends to know of God, thereby to glorify great Work-master, leads to no excess That reaches blame, but rather merits praise The more it seems excess." " For wonderful indeed are all his works, Pleasant to know, and worthiest to be Had in all remembrance always with delight." Milton, 'Paradise Losi, Book iii LONDON: PRINTED AND PUBLISHED BY EEEVE, BEOTHERS, KING WILLIAM STREET, STRAND REEVE, BBOTHEB8, PRINTERS AND LITUOGBAFHERS OF SCIENTIF KING WILLIAM STREET, STRAND PREFACE The Shells object of the present ' work is to furnish the ' Collector of with a methodical arrangement and enumeration of species, accompanied by a popular summary of those grand truths in the physiological history of the MoUusca, which have been elicited from the investigations of recent travellers enunciate the to ; habits and organic peculiarities of this mystic tribe of animals by a careful system of generalization tate, whilst ; and to lead him to medi- pondering over the treasures of his cabinet, upon the nature and zoological affinity of those imperishable records of existence he so delights to contemplate It is not the author's intention to treat of the anatomy of the Mollusca in detail, because he cannot boast of sufficient practical acquaintance vnth the dissecting-knife to enable it with satisfaction ; for that him department of their to undertake natiu-al history he must refer the student to the writings of those authors whose professional task It is skill and education have better fitted them for the intended to treat of the external form, and of the more prominent featm^es of organization ; and especially such as tend to elucidate pecuharities of habit or the characters selected for their generic arrangement For drawings of the living mollusks the author recourse to those invaluable records of zoological will have discovery PREFACE executed under the auspices of the French Government, which, on account of their enormous naturaUsts of this country cost, are as sealed and he ; will books to the be mainly indebted for information on their habits and circumstances of existence to the enterprising exertions of Hugh Cuming, free of communicating the different incidents which arrested manner his attention during fourteen years of indefatigable research, The numerous cannot be spoken of in too high terms vations whose Esq., made by this eminent Western Hemisphere, and traveller obser- both in the Eastern and with his valuable collection of shells much interest and treating only of " shells and the soft parts in spirits, furnish matter of importance It is somewhat difficult in a work the animals which produce them," to avoid referring occasionally some to naked ; of those allied genera of mollusks may be easily un- Blainville, Deshayes, the occasions however are few, and derstood by referring to the writings of Alder and Hancock, D'Orbigny, or De which are entirely any other malacological author The Elements of Conchology the * Collector of Shells'; simply recorded as an of enquiry are addressed exclusively to and the author effort to desires the intellectual recreation, induce a more legitimate tone which afford them so much objects and proclaim " The wisdom That brought them February to be amongst amateur conchologists, into the nature and origin of those beautiful Kinu William work Street, Strand -iOth, 1846 forth, but liid theii' infinite causes deep." ELEMENTS OP CONCHOLOGY Definition of the Science CoNCHOLOGY is that science which treats of the natural history, and arrangenot of Shells alone, but of ment of Shells and their animal inhabitants The former are so beautiful Shells and the animals which produce them : and easy of preservation, the — latter so unsightly and the Conchologist has been greatly perplexed to Shell and its difficult of access, that know how Drawings of many a proper estimation of their physiological connection in their native condition have, however, been published vellers*, to study the Mollusk with equal regard to the characters of both, and with and a sufficient number by intelligent tra- of typical kinds have been described and figured in the magnificent works of those naturalists to exhibit the true method Many of arranging shells according to their zoological affinity erroneous impressions have prevailed in regard to systematic ar- rangement, for want of duly considering the important relation that must necessarily exist between the shell and its fabricator One classifies his shells according to their varieties of form and external aspect, forgetting that he has merely a collection of skeletons before him ; the calcified portions of — animals possessing an organization far superior to that of the Bee, and a thousand creatures, whose structure and sagacity of habits have so often excited his admiration Another of more abstruse habits of investigation, competing \nth the incorrectness of these views, professes the study of the soft parts mainly, and he even needs to be reminded that the shell, on the other hand, is an integral portion of the animal, an outer or exo-skeleton, — * Lesson, 'Voyage de la Coquille ' Voyage daus rAmerique Jleridiouale ; ; Quoy and Gaimard, Voyage ' Deshayes, ' Mollusques de de 1' Astrolabe I'Algerie' ' ; D'Orbigny, wliicli though development to the inner or enclo-skeleton inferior in organic and impressions of the higher orders, nevertheless exhibits certain characters indicative of peculiar structui-es, and affording good subsidiary characters for the distinction of groups The Conchologist must look upon his shells, in the absence of the living parts, as a portion of those imperishable tory is may be knowTi by highly polished porcellanous surface, to be more or less its entirely enveloped by some appendage of the animal ; the Siphonaria offers indications of a of the mantle eye, ^'Medals of Creation'"^ whose his- suggested by their structure and animal impressions The CotvreT/ shell can fail holes, wliich ; and who that regards the Haliotis must be some to surmise that there he may shell with a discerning special design in its series of learn have been perforated by the animal in that the most opposite forms may yet exhibit indications of zoological may be protoo, affinity, observed that the Siliqtiaria shell possesses a structure similarly adapted, and of the same nature, as that is its To show, gress of growth for the passage of the breatliing organs it shell siphon ; the Veims shell shows the form of the lobes an unlocked for affinity An ! first spoken of in the Haliotis Here intimate zoological relation between shells exhibiting the two extremes of convoluted forms ; — the depressed spire, and the tubular spire Comparative A brief survey should Rank in the now be taken Animal System of the Animal Kingdom in order to show the rank and comparative importance of the Mollusca in the general range We are encompassed selves constitute the strange complication of atoms of by a mass of living beings, of affinities this complicated mass, each individual mial method ; that is, a method generic character, the other the nomenclature may be tongues and countries, our- its Tor the sake of studying the several and arranging them in order described and is whom we grand type, whose nature and properties present a named according what is for reference, called a bino- of two names, one denoting its general or particular or specific character of universal application, it is to And that and acknowledged by all adopted in the Latin The modifications of nature are of that nice and delicate character, that we may trace a certain gradation of affinity from man to the animalcule Although objects of extremely anomalous nature occur to disturb the subtile reasonings of the philosopher, yet, there between the highest animal, man, in is a wonderful link of relationsliip whom the beauty of organization complete, and the lowest creatui'e, the animalcule, in which organization so simple as to present nothing is is more than a globule multiplying with comMantell DS\ — pound rapidity by the force of spontaneous fission verb with Linnaeus " Nat ura non if a- the great author of the facit ' was a favorite pro- Nature makes no leap saltum" Systema Naturae ' It —and the force of this axiom in felt much time when the kno\\dedge of species was extremely limited, how stronger may the truth of be now demonstrated when so many of the links it then wanting in the chain of Every day we are invited have been revealed to observation affinity some new form, some new to the contemplation of harmony contribution to the general of the series ; and it is this inexhaus- imparts such a charm to the study tible source of novelty that There is a modifying force in nature, that seems ever laboring to increase the participation of characters that were hitherto unapproachable confounding the systematist ; —she does not choose when Linnaeus Kved in a time She delights in to be defined the researches into the comparative organi- The zation of the inferior animals were not very profound characters dis- tinguished by the modern Aristotle exhibit, frequently, a violation of natural affinity ; whilst they are too often artificial and void of equivalency As soon as the immortal Cuvier began to look into the nervous and other complicated portions of the animal frame, the results proved to be such as materially affect the prevailing method generalizations deduced from this combinations of character ; The of classification new field of to physiological euquuy presented sounder and we are indebted to as great a comparative anatomist of our owii day"^, for having matured and added to the investigations of his illustrious predecessor Cuvier did not, however, enter so minutely into the discrimination of species, as did his contemjjorary great author of the ' Lamarck the primary distribution of the Animal orders, wliich include ; the fu'st distinction Histoire des animaux sans vertebres Mammals, Kingdom, was Birds, Eeptiles, ' which the recognised in that of the higher and Fishes, being furnished with a vertebral column supporting an internal frame or skeleton, whilst the remainder are destitute of any " from the Invertebrate, Now ; and he divided accordingly the Vertebrate it Avill be observed ", says Professor Owen, "that the invertebrate animals are here grouped together by a negative character, and I know not any instance where such a character has been em- ployed in zoology in which very differeidy organized species have not been associated together Snail, the Bee, tebral columns, What indeed can be predicated in common of the and the Polype, than that they are animals and have no verand the Although Lamarck, like negations therefore, tion, it is necessary for the ?" t may be followed in the detail of classifica- primary distribution to follow the method adopted by Cuvier and Owen, who divide the Animal Kingdom into four Sub-kingdoms, the Vertebeata, the Mollusca, the Articulata, and the Radiata * Owen t Huuteriau LectuiTs 1S44 ; — the last three divisions of invertebrate animals occupying each an equal de- gree of rank with the vertebrate These four primary divisions of the Animal into classes as follows Kingdom may be subdivided : Sub-kingdom VERTEBEATA I Mammalia Mammals AvES Bu-ds Eeptilia Frogs, Lizards, Tortoises, Snakes &c Pisces Eishes Class Sub-kingdom Class MOLLUSCA II Cephalopoda Mollusks that walk with their head down- Gasteropoda That acquire motion by the wards tractile and expansde aitl of a con- disk That swim by means of a pah of wing-like Pteropoda Lamellibranchiata* .That have the branchiae fins or breathing or- gans, in thin plates Brachiopoda That are provided with a pair of sphally twisted arms Sub-kingdom Lepades Anellides Crustacea Arachnida Insecta Class AETICULATA III Barnacles Leaches, Earth-worms, &c Crabs, Lobsters, Slu-imps &c Spiders, Scorpions &c Bees, Beetles, Butterflies, Centipedes Sub-kingdom IV EADIATA Eadiaria Sea Eggs, Star Fishes &c Polypi Polypes or coral insects Entozoa Intestinal Infusoria Animalcules Class * lu order to distinguish the classes of Mollusca troduced iu my ' Couchologia Systematica on the most prominent form of the foot ' the Worms by au equivalency of terms thi'oughout, word Tropiopoda —the narrow keel-shape ; and it was adopted by Professor is It has, however, been demonstrated by Professor Owen, in his Hunterian Lectures, that the foot whose modifi- cations offer so excellent a character for the lusca, I in- in reference to this class, foimded Macgillivi-ay of Aberdeen in his Report of the Mollusca of that coast since Sec is not only too variable in sometimes altogether wanting has been preferred, and I now ance to the memory, Natiu-c tent with accui'acy is its distinction of classes in the higher orders of Mol- formation and uses for that purpose in the Bivalves, but The lamellated character readily adopt it of the branchia;, or breathing organs, Although an equivalency of terms so variable in her characters that it is a great assist- cannot be embraced to any ex- Groioth It will and Structure of Shells be seen by the foregoing arrangement that the MoUusca occnpy Animal Kingdom, and, ranging next the second grand division of the most to the Fishes, are the word are termed Mollusks, from the Latin mollis, soft, They ; on account of then* except in the Cephalopod, any fleshy unjointed nature, without bone, or, internal cartilaginous skeleton vision, in order higlily organized of the invertebrate series and are furnished with organs of motion, muscular contraction &c Their chief energies however, de- are, voted to the formation of a shelly covering presenting great variety of form, colour^ The tlie Some and sculpture dimentary mollusks, as the Aplys'iana, have only a ru- shell, wliilst others, as shell is the Eolidce, are entirely naked formed by the deposite of a slimy juice which exudes from glands of a filmy cloak-like organ called the mantle, and thickening in and moulded on the body, successive layers, becomes hardened witli the ad- dition of such ornamental structure, as the various fdamentous modifications of the organ promote This mucous exudation consists, not, as at one time supposed, of calca- mem- careous particles held together by a sort of animal glue, but of a branous tissue, consohdated by an admixture of carbonate of lime composed of two shells are therefore The animal matter calcareous matter which is either cellular or laminary membranous distinct elements, walls, infused; in others some in ; constitutes cases All — animal matter and a it is membranous formed in basis cells mostly hexagonal, into which the calcareous matter is it de])osited in membranous laminae, more or of is less wrinkled like morocco leather, with the calcareous matter in alternate layers, the lime in both cases imparting sohdity to what would otherwise be a flexible stratum These elements vary in their ing to circumstances ; — relative proportions accord- in those shells wiiich are of a fibrous laminary struc- ture such as Pinna, and the whole of the margaritaceous group, there proportion of the shells, membranous constituent ; is a large whilst in the solid porcellanous such as the Olives and Cowries, the calcareous matter preponderates, the parts in immediate contact ^\^th the acetose juices of the mantle becoming vitrified, as it were, to a liiglily polished state of enamel Great importance has been attached to the elementary structure of shells by the recent microsco- pical investigations of Dr Carpenter"^; his experiments successfully conducted by grinding in dilute acid, the result being that the calcareous matter or leaving a residuum of cribes membranous tissue On an instance of a mass in wliich the animal * Report of llic foiu'teeuth have been most do\^Ti a thin layer of shell, Meeting of tlie and placing hme it decomposes, the other hand, he des- basis, a cellular tissue, British Association p pi to 20 had decayed, and the calcareous portion standing in basaltiform columns, left (casts of the cells) not in The any way held together, and separable by the touch commonly optical irridescence of the nacreous portion of shells, called mother-o-pearl, has been found by the same distinguished physiologist to be produced by the refraction of rays of light falling on the edges of the morocco-like wrinkles of laminary membranous magnifying power, the nacreous surface waved lines wliicli Sir Under a high substance exliibits a number of irregularly John Herschell has not unaptly likened to the ap- The pearance of the woody layers on the surface of a planed deal board brightest nacre its shell that with which the large Avicida of the Pacific Knes is and the round pearls so ; jewellery, are occasioned higlily valued are by its liighly esteemed by ladies as articles of Those which are most superabundant flow found within and around the fleshy part of the adductor The muscle, arising from disease or irritation eries are said to preserve these by the introduction of a animals alive, for proprietors of Pearl Fish- the sake of them ii-ritating stick or other sharp instrument, producing thereby a disorganization of the secreting gland, which causes the pearly nacre to accumulate in pea-hke balls in different parts of the body little Reproduction and Habits The reproductive system oviparous The ; shell in its allotted in others by the gradual deposition of mucus from the mantle in such form as are suitable to the habits and destiny of the animal In the Cephalopods, as in the Nautilus, upon some viviparous, period and uniformity of growth embryo, emerging either from the parent directly or from the egg, increases varieties of of the Mollusca is in and every kind has it assumes a discoidal growth, coihng itseK on a plane with the point of the spire ; in the Gastropods either revolves obKquely round an axis in the form of an enlarging as in the Turbo, or it as the extreme forms presents the shape of a depressed sphere, as in the Brachiopods) the testaceous matter is deposited on a or concave sm-face, as in different species of Pecten, and organization gilus, Pterocera ; in the Pteropods Hyalaa, or of a cylin- {Lamellibranchiates and der, as in the Cuvieria; whilst in the Bivalves tions of structure are spiral, takes a simple conical structure of wliicli the Fatella and the Bentalinm may be regarded it it flat, simply convex, most of which modifica- induced by some corresponding economy in the habits of the subjects and a few Some shells, such as the C^jorcea, Ma- others, present different appearances at different stages of growth The habits of the Mollusca are extremely varied and curious In the sea they are found dwelling in zones of different depths, either free or attached to foreign substances where they are most About the prolific, shore, and at the they are found in depth of a few fathoms, mud, among sand and gravel, J'laU JO N^i E,B &.B.S a^i et:iiHx fcB, iinf _PUt£ a,B G-B S id- etSth- &.ll,mrp 31/ FiM±e- \ jiriL f.' iV\ ni 182 cu iL,B G-.B.S atLstTiftL &Il,-liiij fI/aj^ xjiT/r /S4 ji,i5 & fL.ojrm TlateJ I XXTIV ;$ t -n/ iMl^ ^^ Mja:^-^^" im x.S.S lel.etlitl :EL,:B8fXim.i Tlate' GrB.S.deletTitll XXX T .3 ^ A.imj ^UteZIVI /