56 ANNALS NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES 



the last including reptiles. The number of beasts he stated to be a hundred 

 and fifty, adding his belief that "not many that are of any considerable big- 

 ness in the known regions of the world have escaped the cognizance of the 

 curious." The birds he considered might reach as many as five hundred. 

 Contrast this with the more than twelve thousand species so far described. 

 The number of insects he considered might possibly reach twenty thousand 

 species, a long way from Sharp and Walsingham's estimate of two millions, 

 or Riley's of ten millions. Nowadays this estimate of Ray provokes a 

 smile, and yet we can find an example of much greater complacency shown 

 by one of our noted scientific men of much more recent date ; for Dr. Coues 

 about ISSO thought that few mammals remained to be discovered in North 

 America. How badly he was mistaken is shown by Dr. Allen's review in 

 1894, showing that the number of recognized species had more than doubled 

 in ten years, rising from 181 in 1880 to 369 in 1890; and since then many 

 more have been described, not merely small creatures that to the ordinarv- 

 observers are alike, but large animals like bears and mountain-sheep. 



It well illustrates the activity displayed by naturalists of that day to say 

 that by 1758 the number of known mammals and reptiles had increased to 

 334 and of birds to 790; the figures in the one case being an advance of 

 a hundi-ed per cent over those of Ray, and in the other of fifty per cent. 



How thoroughly the world is being ransacked for new animals, and how 

 actively naturalists are engaged in their description, may be gathered from 

 the following figures. Up to 1830, species to the number of 71,598 had 

 been described, by 1881 the number had risen to 211,553, and by 1896 

 to 366,000; more than 150,000 species having been described in fifteen 

 years. And the vast and ever-growing host of living things — the beasts 

 of the field, the birds of the air, the fishes that are in the water about the 

 earth, to say nothing of the myriad species of the plant world — are each 

 and all named in accordance with the method devised by Linnaeus two 

 centuries ago. Linnaeus builded better than he knew, and his work has 

 stood the test of time; and the methods he devised for classifying and 

 naming animals are those in use now. His details may have been faulty, 

 and the groups he considered as genera may have been divided and sub- 

 divided, but his plan stands. 



Scores of animals known to Linnaeus have been swept out of existence, 

 and thousands that he never knew have been discovered; but the stimulus 

 given by him to the study of nature remains unchecked, and to-day in 

 many countries the members of learned societies have assembled, as we have 

 gathered here, to do honor to the great Swedish naturalist. Sweden, indeed, 

 chanced to be the birthplace of this great man, but genius is not fettered 

 by time and space, belonging rather to all time and to the whole world. 



