The Conchologist’s First Book — Edgar A. Poe, 1839 — reading text

™~ sap ERR RID Rites om g E ¢ 4 j Sesawrecwerm eee 4 wee aS ol - . 4 al a Pi : » = ee ‘ Bi ti Wh ’ Ph » i r _ des SOS a ¢ ‘ 5 “ © C 7?¢ Hi : . Te, ° y se ® »* : > ey " nia eta ¥ * - . Ris ee R ah : ; 7 Fe x as — oe? i ¥ " * = “ 1s A a 7 - a * ® aa a AMAA BA AA LDA ATED AACA = ANS AS AS Y\S AN AVE AN ZANT GE ISAS ACS GSN Os ANCA fo yl ‘ t v4 =F ' ae Whe » mn mii Oh Ss eh : é 4 wi =" vi “es es Pe acs Division of Mollusks Biel) a! Sectional Library a | bh AUTOGRAPHS AT ANDERSON’S See collection of historical autograph letters and documents formed by the late Tristram Coffin of this city was sold at the Anderson Galleries in two sessions on January 7, 431 lots bringing $26,462.75. The sale was well attended, bidding was spirited, and prices on the most attractive items were high. | The highest price, $3,600, was paid by James F. Drake for an A.L.S. of Edgar Allan Poe, two pages, quarto, February 16, 1847, written to G, W. Evelett refuting the charge of plagiarism in connection with “The Conchologist’s First Book.” Re- ferring to this book, Poe says that he “‘wrote it in conjunction with Professor Thomas Wyatt and Professor MacMurtrie of Phila- delphia, my name being put to the work, as best known and most likely to aid its circulation. I wrote the Preface and Intro- duction and translated from Cuvier, the accounts of the animals, etc. All school- books are necessarily made in a similar way. The very title page acknowledges that the animals are given ‘according to Cuvier.? This charge is infamous and I shall prose- cute for it as soon as I settle my account with the ‘Mirror.” Sab Rew, hag I /23 THE CONCHOLOGIST’S FIRST BOOK: OR, A) eS TM OF TESTACEOUS MALACOLOGY, Arranged eypress|y 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. Division of Mollus BY EDGAR A. POE. Sectional Library vcgae 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 Wonsurveps IN THE UNITED STATES. 7 ” 839. 1839. ‘ EnTERED according to act of Congress, in the year 1839, by Epear A. Por, in the clerk’s office for the eastern district of Pennsylvania. > - ie £y ? ; me % o re RE ie ed A eOhial lastin-™ Seta Meri lees ; of er re “th f ¢ NY ‘ yy 4) * Printed by . Haswell, Barrington, and Haswell. ¥ i ‘ | i” & - A 3 _- SD ae » > | jos” % x . . HR A te ide ne Losey . ua ‘e 1129. Poe (Edgar Allan). The Conchologist’s Text- Book, with 2 Ciscoe of tecn= nical terms. By Capt. Thomas Brown. With 19 plates on steel. 12mo original printed boards, 180 pp. Glasgow, 1833. Bookplate. $10.00 Very scare. The first issue of the book said to have been plagarized by Poe and pub- lished. Phila., 1839. See “International Magazine”, Oct. 1850. Binding worn but clean copy inside, edges untrimmed. PREFACE. 7 q | | Tue term ‘* Malacology,’” an abbreviation of ‘ Mala- coxoology,”’ from the Greek pzrzxos, 80ff, Cus, an animal, and acyos, a discourse, was first employed by the French naturalist De Blainville to designate an important divi- sion 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 éeséacea 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 T'reatise upon Conchology or Conchyliology ; although the word is somewhat improperly applied, as the Greek conchylion, from which it is derived, em- braces in its signification both the animal and shell. Ostracology would have been, more definite. The common works upon this subject, however, will appear to every. person of science very essentially defective, inasmuch as the relations of the animal and shell, with their dependence upon each other, is 2 radically important consideration in the examination of er. Neither, in the attempt to obviate this difficulty, is a work upon Malacology at large necessarily included. Shells, it is true, form, and for many obvious reasons, i a eR a le ta cee a 4 PREFACE. will continue to form, the subject of chiefinterest whether with regard to the school or the cabinet. There is no good reason why a book upon Conchology (using the com- mon term) may not be malacological as far as it pro- ceeds. In this view of the subject the present little work is offered to the public. Beyond the ruling feature—that of giving an anatomical account of each animal, together with a description of the shell which it inhabits, the Author has aimed at little more than accuracy and sim- plieity, as far as the latter quality can be thought consistent with the rigid exactions of science. No attention has been given to the mere History of our subject; it is conceived that any disquisition on this head would more properly appertain to works of ultimate research, than to one whose sole intention is to make the pupil acquainted, in as tangible a form as possible, with resuwdés. ‘To afford, at a cheap rate, a concise, yet sufficiently comprehensive, and especially a well illustrated school-book, has been the principal design. ‘In conclusion, the author has only to acknowledge his great indebtedness to the valuable public labors, as well as private assistance of Mr. Isaac Lea, of Phila- delphia. ‘To Mr. Thomas Wyatt, and his late excellent Manual of Conchology, he is also under many cbliga- tions. No better work, perhaps, could be put into _» ‘the hands of the student as a secondary text-book. Its beautiful and perfectly well-coloured illustrations afford an aid in the collection of a cabinet scarcely to be met with elsewhere. : Ey Awa INTRODUCTION. Tue term “ Conchology,” in its legitimate usage, is applic to that department of Natural History which has reference to ani- ‘mals with testaceous covering or shells. It is not unfrequently compounded 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 crea- ture 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. i 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 foree; this domicil, too, is a permanent one, and is increased, from time to time, by ” gradual adhesions 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.” aa “ % og + tit * s=..lUf "= ae ae = aca eS ia at a age: 2 a alte y > at ys oot a “ > ¥ ~ * “ agit a } te ~ oA At + z é a ae = ‘ iz * ade ’ “ «yy - 3 * age o ? F # af ‘ ; 4 : a INTRODUCTION, “f? . x ‘ . Pad £ ; ae * ; stone Have not. been wanting to decry is study as frivolous or inessential ; not ‘unjustly Bailing the oclene itself on ac- count of the gross abuses which have now and theil arisen from its exclusive and extravagant pursuit. f ‘They have reasoned much after this fashion :—that Conchology i isa folly, because. Rumphius © : was a fool. ‘The Conus Cedo Nga has, ‘been sold for ‘three x ~ SR ii ‘ hundred. guineas, and the naturalist just mentioned gave a thou-— r! sand pounds sterling fon" “one of the first Aiscovered specimens of ri * : the Venus Dione (of Linneus). ‘But. Beers have” been men. Se i. a all ages who have carried to an absurd, and’ even pemicious ex- tae ; treme, pursuits the most ennobling and praiseworthy. — * ’ : ' 'S To an upright and well regulated mind, there is no eo he of e the works of the Creator coming within its cognizanee, which | va 2 will not afford material for attentive and pleasur able investigation ; ; and, so far from admitting the venerable error even now partially a existing to the discredit of Conchology, we should not hesitate to. acknowledge, that while few branches of Natural History are Of »» 3 more direct, very few are of more adventitious ipartanees, oe ° Testaceous animals form the principal subsistence of an ime mense number of savage nations, inhabitants of the sea-board, as On the coast of Western Africa, of oars of New Holiand, and | in the clustered and populous islands he Southern seas, hogs vast an item is ty apparently unimportant shell-fish in ie'wvealth and happiness of man! In more civilized countries it often s sup-» plies thie table with a delicate luxury. Nor must we forget the * services of the pinna with its, web, nor of the purpura with its” brilliant and once valuable Pe nor omit to speak of the pearl- - oyster, with the radiant nacre, and the gem which it produces, — and the world of industry which it sets in action as minister to i the luxury which it stimulates. — Shells, too, being composed of particles already in natural com- o¥ | e prey ered “va vw, (oP Be ce* a * _ ee Se i vr ee ee a, ae Pe» i= .¢ Fo he! te > 2 ore ors 77 = tig Tea cy . a lesa ee z a ne a — be | * ees: < - Re eee a eet So ae j at} a $ b ta <% ? "i ‘ i ae - yk, & he 2% ee ” Pa w Pe ‘ , ° = ei a wt @ ° ss le eee gps toe Sg a, Seale : , ‘ ol in x . * “ . a eh ‘= — a ce | aNtRopuemx. ee oe 6 Mise a i ; bien, have not within them, fee’ flowers and animals, the seed Le | : ae of dissolution. _ While the preparation of a’specimen for the cabi- ** a “net is 2 a snipe « operation, a “eqpchplogical? babi will yet re- : ye. ‘main ‘perhaps for ages: These important circumstances b being “wate r ; daly considered, in connexion with the universally acknowledged he oe kd, ie a, + beauty. and variety, both ¢ ry) ‘mand color, so strikingly ‘ohserva- iy ; fe ble in shells, it is | a matt er for neither wonder nor regret that these . mp a hes 4g magnificent exwvid, even regarded merely as such, should have | my. Pie t tA attracted, i in'a very exclusive degree, ‘the attention and the admi-. ee ~ sation of th “fatiralict. The study of ’Chncholozy; however, ~~ . : _when legi ately directed, and when regarding these exruviz in - their ntitirral point of 4% view, as the habitations, wonderfully con- pi . structed, of an immensely aumerdye and ee important branch ¢ ly animal creation, will lead the mind of the investigator Se bach paths hitherto but imperfectly Hetidén: to many novel ; contemplations of Almighty Beneficence and Design. > a... But it is, beyond all doubt, in a geological point of view that - Congpolorg otters the most of interest to the student; and here, by ° reference to the fair pages ofa profound and mighty knowledge, to which it has pointed out the searcher after truth, are triumph- ? . 4 _— F antly refuted all charges brought against it of insignificance or ear b + ‘ frgvoliia ae. = i “Tn ne, the relations of the Mansion? ” says De Blainville, « with the mineral eidote and consequently with the mass of ‘ax the earth which they contribute to