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Edgar Allan Poe, Thomas Brown

The Conchologist's First Book

Published by Good Press, 2021

goodpress@okpublishing.info

EAN 4066338060938

Table of Contents

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INTRODUCTION.

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The term “Conchology,” in its legitimate usage, is applied to that department of Natural History which has reference to animals with testaceous covering or shells. It is not unfrequently confounded with Crustaceology, but the distinction is obvious and radical, lying not more in the composition of the animal’s habitation, than in the organization of the animal itself. This latter, in the Crustacea, is of a fibrous nature, and has articulated limbs; the shell, strictly adapted to the members, covers the creature like a coat of mail, is produced at one elaboration, is cast or thrown aside periodically, and, again at one elaboration, renewed; it is moreover composed of the animal matter with phosphate of lime. In the Testacea, on the contrary, the inhabitant is of a simple and soft texture, without bones, and is attached to its domicil by a certain adhesive muscular force; this domicil, too, is a permanent one, and is increased, from time to time, by gradual additions on the part of the tenant; while the entire shell, which is distributed in layers, or strata, is a combination of carbonate of lime, with a very small portion of gelatinous matter. Such animals, then, with such shells, form, alone, the subject of a proper “Conchology.”

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