Conchology
the science of shells.
Two well-marked stages in its development are traceable. At first shells were studied without any reference to the animals of which they constituted the hard framework or sekelton. Subsequently sekelton. the study took a wider scope, and for the first time became worthy of being called a science, when the animals and their shells were viewed as parts of one common whole.
When shells, and they alone, were studied, conchology was a not unsuitable name, except that the termination -ology suggested that the investigation was more scientific than in most cases it really was. When the animals came to be carefully examined, M. de Blainville proposed for this deeper study the name malacozoölogy-i. e., the study of the CONCINI softer animals-viz., mollusks; this has been since abbreviated into malacology.