54 Dr. Surru's Introductory Difcourfe. 
pretends to the name of a naturalift can avoid conforming to them. 
The laws, for inftance, according to which he conftruéted his 
generic names and /pecific differences, which we fhould do well to 
imitate, although lefs ftriétly, in the application of trivial names. 
I hope never to fee any defcriptions fent into the world by this 
fociety without fpecific differences; they are what diftinguifh a 
true fcientific naturalift from an empiric, and nothing but incapa- 
city in an author can make us pardon the want of them. Without 
a ftriét attention to this maxim, the {cience will foon relapfe into 
its original barbarifm, nor can any thing but another Linnæus 
reftore it. Let not the excellent work of my friend Mr. Latham 
be here cited againft me; for that ingenious author is too judicious 
to have neglected this material point; he is pofleffed of the effen- 
tial characters of all his birds, and means to publifh them in a 
fyftematic form as a fupplement to his great work. I with I could 
make the fame apology for fome other eminent writers. But how 
would their works fhrink if reduced to Linnzan concifenefs and 
precifion ! 
À kind of knowledge which naturalifts have a right to expect 
from us in a fuperior degree, is the accurate determination of the 
fpecies defcribed by Linnzus, and indeed thofe of many other 
authors. Our accefs to the feveral original collections I have men- 
tioned, to the immenfe herbarium of Sir Jofeph Banks, which 
contains the entire collections of feveral celebrated botanifts, but 
more efpecially to the very herbarium and mufeum of Linnzus 
himfelf, muft give us means of knowledge not to be had elfewhere, 
This isa fubjeét on which I {peak with peculiar pleafure, as in this 
refpeét I may hope to be infinitely more ufeful to the prefent in- 
ftitution, than could have been expected from any abilities of my 
own. A train of events, which I cannot help calling moft fortu- 
nate, having brought into my hands every thing which Linnæus 
poffeffed 
