Elements Of Conchology Prepared For The Use Of Schools And Colleges

Author : W. S. W. Ruschenberger
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9781332236862
Total Pages : 128 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (368 download)

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Download or read book Elements of Conchology written by W. S. W. Ruschenberger and published by . This book was released on 2015-08-05 with total page 128 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Excerpt from Elements of Conchology: Prepared for the Use of Schools and Colleges The fifth of the Series of First Books of Natural History, embraces that branch of our subject which treats of the Mollusca, or soft animals, and, consequently, includes the Elements of Conchology. In the beauty and singularity of their forms, the variety and brilliancy of their colours, shells only yield to flowers. The admiration of these deserted habitations of a very numerous class of animals is very general, if not universal; scarcely a house, at least in sea-port towns, is without a few shells, and in many there are large collections of them. Comparatively, few persons, however, view them in connection with animal existence - for the mass, they are merely beautiful things from the seas and rivers, far and near. We care little how they grow, how they live, how they breathe, upon what they feed, or for what use they were created. Who stops to think an oyster has a heart and blood-vessels, a breathing apparatus, a nervous system, or digestive organs? How very few are aware that certain snails possess eyes and lay eggs; nor is it universally known that we are indebted to the organization of soft animals for mother-of-pearl and pearls! Limited as this little volume is, it may prove a key to stores of information, even more interesting to many than the numerous fictions of the day. "Truth is stranger than fiction," has been often said; and the beautiful truths brought to us by a study of animal life, in its various forms, are certainly more admirable and wonderful than any fiction of man's creation. Is there any thing produced by the Bulwers or the James' of the day, more worthy of admiration than the habits of a snail, or the movements of a cockle-shell? When at the Sandwich Islands, in 1836, we heard an anecdote which has an application here. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.