BICENTENARY OF LINN^US 53 



name to apply to that particular kind of animal alone. And so binomial 

 nomenclature was born. It has been claimed that Linnjeus was not the 

 first to use the binomial system, but, if not, he was certainly the first to 

 employ it consistently and to frame rules relating to such use. Linn^us 

 wrote in Latin not as a matter of affectation, but because Latin was the 

 common language of culture and science, and to this day many naturalists 

 still write descriptions of new species in Latin, or preface their accounts 

 with a brief diagnosis in that language. Had he written in Swedish, his 

 native tongue, his audience would have been a small one, probably limited 

 to his native land; as it v/as, his works were understood by all the natu- 

 ralists of the day. Hence his scientific names which w^ere Latin names 

 are, like a gold coin, current the world over, while the so-called "popular 

 name" is restricted in its use, and circulates only in the country where it 

 is coined. 



But Linnseus did much more than devise a scheme of nomenclature : he 

 systematically defined each and every group of plants and animals with 

 which he dealt, giving their chief characters in a few brief words; and the 

 small groups, or genera, he combined in large divisions termed "orders." 

 It matters not that the genera of Linnseus have since been divided and sub- 

 divided many times, the underlying principle of assigning certain definite 

 characters to each animal remains the same. 



Linnaeus was a born classifier. He was not happy until he had duly set 

 in order the facts and objects that came under his notice ; and while he did 

 not, it is true, carry this to the extent of the eccentric Rafinesque, who made 

 several genera and species of thunder and lightning, he did propose a system 

 of classification for diseases wherein they were duly assigned to their respec- 

 tive families and genera. 



To many the term "classification " is repellant. It seems to signify some- 

 thing with which the ordinary man has nothing to do, when really it is some- 

 thing with which every one is, or should be, concerned ; for classification is 

 simply arranging things in their proper places, and putting things of a kind 

 together. And the man who puts his cuffs in one place, his collars in another, 

 and arranges his shoes in a row on the top shelf of a closet, is a classifier. 



The naturalist is confronted by the same problem as a general,— that of 

 grouping or arranging the various plants or animals so that he may know 

 where each one is to be found, or where to assign any new form that may 

 come to light. For an army is not merely a large number of armed men, 

 it is an orderly assemblage of men so classed and grouped that they can be 

 handled by one man. And the classification of the animal kingdom, for 

 example, is very similar to that of an army, and to the same end, — that any 

 one may put into its proper place each of the thousands of units with which 

 he has to do. 



