BICENTENARY OF LINNJEUS 57 



At the conclusion of Mr. Lucas's address the Glee Club sang a second 

 selection, and then the evening exercises ended with an exhibition, by means 

 of stereopticon views, of plants and animals known to Linnaeus, in charge 

 of Dr. A. J. Grout and Mr. Lucas. 



In the Borough of Manhattan the day was rounded out at the New 

 York Aquarium, Battery Park, where the New York Zoological Society 

 gave a reception to the Academy and the guests of the occasion. This 

 function likewise commemorated the centennial anniversary of the erection 

 of the building and gave the first view of the collections by night. A fea- 

 ture of the reception was the exhibition of forms of marine life known to 

 Linnseus. 



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An important and highly interesting feature of the Linnaeus celebration 

 lay in the following documents contributed by sister societies in many parts 

 of the world, and letters written by several of the Honorary Members of 

 the New York Academy. Each is reproduced here in the language in 

 which it was sent in. 



Kungl. Svenska Vetenskapsakademien, Stockholm. 



It is with great pleasure that the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has 

 received in these days, from all parts of the world, the most gratifying testi- 

 monies of the great admiration and esteem in which our first president, 

 Carl von Linne, is held by all those who love and study nature. Your invi- 

 tation has also been accepted with great gratitude : it was, however, received 

 so late that it was impossible to take any measures for participating in your 

 celebration in such a way as would have been desirable to us. You have 

 expressed your wishes that we should contribute an official document appre- 

 ciative of the work of Linne. There is, however, no opportunity now to 

 prepare such a document, and we must thus confine ourselves to a short 

 statement elucidating our opinion. 



There were many great naturalists before Linne, if we count from Aris- 

 toteles to Ray and Willughby. There was certainly a great amount of 

 knowledge, also, concerning animals and plants; but there was no system, 

 no scientific names or terms. The facts that were known in natural history 

 before Linn^ were thus heaped without order, or with very little order, like 

 a pile of bricks and stones at a building-place. Linn6 was the great architect 

 who made the plan for the erecting of the building, — the system; and he 

 furnished at the same time the mortar — the nomenclature — for cementing 



