58 ANNALS NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES 



together the stones and bricks. It may be admitted that more practical and 

 more beautiful buildings have been constructed since that time in the scien- 

 tific world; but he was and he remains the great master, who, with bril- 

 liant genius and admirable skill, first taught us how to put in order and 

 systematically arrange the material, and thus make a true science of natu- 

 ral history. This has also been universally admitted; and the renowned 

 British naturalist Pennant ^^Tites about this part of Linne's work, "He 

 hath in all his classes given philosophy a new language; hath invented 

 apt names, and taught the world a brevity, yet a fullness, of description 

 unknown to past ages." 



Many persons not familiar with Linne's work have believed that Linn6 

 contented himself with describing the exterior of the objects in nature, and 

 then named them. Nothing can be more erroneous; that is proved by 

 the program or the "Methodus" which Linne published even in the first 

 edition of "Svstema Naturje." This "Methodus" is in its thirtv-eight 

 short paragraphs the fullest and richest program which any student of 

 natural history has ever published. Referring to this we may affirm that no 

 branch whatever of biological study was neglected or underrated by Linn^. 

 He grasped fully the importance of the study of anatomy, and he advised 

 his scholars to dissect animals and also to make a frequent use of the magnify- 

 ing glass. His ardent love of living nature made him an excellent biologist 

 in the restricted sense of that word. 



Even if his greatest works were of a systematic and descriptive nature, 

 it becomes e\ndent to any one who has only a superficial knowledge of what 

 Linne has written, that his genius extended with unbounded flight to cover 

 much wider areas of philosophical speculation. Although he did not see it 

 in the light of the theory of evolution, — it was indeed far too early for that, — 

 the general struggle for existence, as well as the idea of sexual selection, was 

 well known to him. And many other problems of modern times did he 

 touch. Let us only recall the fact that to the pious and pure mind of this 

 great naturalist there was no objection to place homo sapiens as the first 

 Hnk in the continuous chain of organisms. 



His works may shine with everlasting brightness through all ages, as 

 long as mankind devotes itself to the study of nature. His name is cere 

 perentiius, but this Academy of Sciences and the whole people of Sweden 

 feel deeply and are gratefully touched by the honor which now is bestowed 

 upon our great compatriot, when his name is given to a monumental bridge 

 connecting the Botanical Garden and the Zoological Park in New York. 



K. A. H. MoRXER. 

 Chr. AuRrv'iLLius, Secretary. 



