Scientific lntelligen,ce. — New Publications. 203 



" Linnaeus was entirely ignorant of the philosophy of nature !"'"' 

 It would be well for nature, by which, we presume, the soi-disant 

 philosophers mean to express the works of their Creator, and 

 the admirable laws by which these are kept sustained and co- 

 ordinate, if such another observer were alive at this time. 



So great, however, has been the impulse given to Natural His- 

 tory since the commencement of the present century, chiefly in 

 consequence of the progress of geographical discovery, that its 

 field has been most wonderfully extended. To take, as an ex- 

 ample, the subjects of Entomology, which, in the time of Lin- 

 naeus, that is to say, about the year 1766, amounted to 3060, 

 (among which were included many animals not correctly define- 

 able as true insects,) are now calculated to exceed one hundred 

 thousand. As the increase in the other classes has also been 

 great, though not proportionate, it will readily be conceived 

 that the system of Linnaeus required, as it certainly admitted of, 

 such a modification as would fit it for the reception of a more ex- 

 tended dominion. In Entomology, consequently, we find that 

 his orders have been preserved almost entire by the first natu- 

 ralists of the present day ; while, in regard to the propriety of re- 

 taining as much of the Linnsean system as possible, in every 

 branch of the science, we have the following testimony from the 

 pen of the Baron Cuvier. " Je conseille neanmoins, quand on 

 nommera les especes, de n'employer que le substantif du grand 

 genre, et le nom trivial. Les noms de sous-genres ne sont des- 

 tines qu'a soulager la memoire, quand on voudra indiquer ces 

 subdivisions enparticulier. Autrement, comme les sous-genres, de- 

 ja tres-multiplies, se multiplieront beaucoup plus par la suite, a 

 force d'avoir de substantifs a retenir continuellement, on sera ex- 

 pose a perdre les avantages de cette nomenclature binaire, si 

 heureusement imaginee par Linnaeus. C'est pour la mieux consa- 

 crer que j'ai demembre le moins qu**il m'a ete possible, les grands 

 genres de cet illustre reformateur de la science. G'etait non seule- 

 ment un egard que je devais a la memoire de Linnaeus, mais 

 c'etait aussi une attention necessaire pour conserver la tradition 

 et rintelligence mutuelle des naturalistes des differens pays.**" 

 We conceive it to be chiefly owing to the frequent and unneces- 

 sary changes now alluded to, that so many obstacles have as yet 



