LINN^US AND HIS INFLUENCE 57 



not distinctive in determining their position and 

 relationships. His system was essentially an arti- 

 ficial one, a convenient key for finding the names of 

 animals and plants, but doing violence to the 

 natural arrangement of those organisms. 



To do justice, however, to the discernment of 

 Linnaeus, it should be added that he was fully aware 

 of the artificial nature of his classification. A real 

 natural system, founded on the true affinities of 

 animals and plants as indicated by their structural 

 characters, he regarded as the highest aim of classifi- 

 cation. But, he never completed a natural system, 

 learning only a fragment. 



Even the larger groups of animals were extended 

 and much modified by Cuvier, by von Siebold, by 

 Leuckart and by others. As to the larger divisions 

 of animals and plants, Linnaeus recognized only 

 classes and orders. Then came genera and species. 

 He did not use the term family in his formulae; this 

 convenient designation having been introduced, in 

 1780, by Batch. 



The first modification of importance to the Lin- 

 naean system was that of Cuvier, who proposed 

 (1815) a grouping of animals based upon a knowledge 

 of their comparative anatomy. He declared that 



