40 THE HISTORY OF CREATION. 



of creation, together with the dogmas connected with it, has 

 become so generally predominant, that the 19th century is 

 the first that has dared positively to rise against it. Even 

 the great Swedish naturalist, Linnaeus, the founder of modern 

 natural history, linked his System of Nature most closely to 

 the Mosaic history of creation. 



The extraordinary progress which Charles Linnaeus made 

 in the so-called descriptive natural sciences, consists, as is 

 well known, in his having established a system of nomencla- 

 ture of animals and plants, which he carried out in a manner 

 so perfectly logical and consistent, that down to the present 

 day it has remained in many respects the standard for all 

 succeeding naturalists engaged in the study of the forms of 

 animals and plants. Although Linnaeus' system was 

 artificial, although in classifying animal and vegetable 

 species he only sought and employed single parts as the 

 foundation for his divisions, it has, nevertheless, gained the 

 greatest success ; firstly, in consequence of its being carried 

 out consistently, and secondly, by its nomenclature of natural 

 bodies, which has become extremely important, and at 

 which we must here briefly glance. 



Before Linnaeus' time, many vain attempts had been made 

 to throw light upon the endless chaos of difi'erent animal 

 and vegetable forms (then known) by adopting for them 

 suitable names and groupings ; but Linnaeus, by a happy hit, 

 succeeded in accomplishing this important and difllcult task, 

 when he established the so-called " binary nomenclature." 

 The binary nomenclature, or the twofold designation, as 

 Linnaeus first established it, is still universally applied by 

 all zoologists and botanists, and will, no doubt, maintain 

 itself, for a long time to come, with undiminished authority. 



