Illustrations of the recent conchology of Great Britain and Ireland, with the description and localities of all the species, marine, land and fresh water

PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. ALTHOUGH Conchology has been a favourite pursuit from very early periods of eivilization, yet its great valuc as a science has but recently been rendered manifest, from its utility in connection with Geology, in identifying strata which are of ancient or more recent formatio11. For we find on investigating the crust of our Globe, that whole races of Mollusks havc existcd and become extinct during different geological epochs; and that it is only in tbe more recent deposits that species identical with those existing on tbe land, and in the present seas, are to be met with ; hence the importance of a knowledge of Recent as well as Fossil Conchology. Tbis fact., as well as the general importance of this branch of study, has been acknowledged by the greatest Modern Geologists. Up to the present time no work has appeared embracing half the species which have been detected in Great Britain and Ireland, and it was with a view to supply the desideratum, that the Author undertook the present, as well as its sister work " ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE Foss1L CoNcHOLOGY OF GnEAT BnrTAIN AND IRELAND ;" whicb, together, embrace pretty complete Illustrations and Descriptions of all the species, Ancient as well as Recent, which have been met with in our Islands. The general arrangement adopted in tbe following work is that of Lamarck, according to the descending scale, with such slight alterations and the addition of sorne new Genera, wbich more recent observations have rendered necessary, since the time of that celebrated Malacologist. The Author has been more solicitous to improve a classification, which has been almost universally adopted by European as well as Transatlantic Conchologists, rather than to attempt a system of bis own, like ot.her recent writers on this branch of Natural History; all of whom have signally failed in founding a classification likely to supercede that of Lamarck. lt is to be lamented that ambition should prompt naturalists to change established classification and nomenclature, as nothing tends so much to retard the progress of science. When this Second Edition was commenced, the Author contemplated giving reduced Illustrations of one Animal of all the British genera, which had been investigated; but, upon more mature consideration, it appeared to him that small figures could not fail to prove unsatis- factory to the Malacologist, and to represent them the size of life would run out the book to a b