BICENTENARY OF LINN^US 86 



The Staten Island Association of Arts and Sciences. 



It has been said by Taine that "every book and every man may be 

 reviewed in five pages, and those five pages in five Hnes." On this occasion, 

 however, we are not asked to review the Hfe or the books of the man in whose 

 honor we are assembled, but to testify as briefly as may be to our appreciation 

 of his work and what this work has meant to his posterity. Such a task is 

 different from that which the reviewer is ordinarily called upon to perform; 

 and to do it justice in words, within a reviewer's recognized limitations, 

 would be impossible in connection wuth the name of Linnaeus. Fortunately, 

 however, words are not necessary, and indeed are superfluous, where this 

 appreciation is so clearly demonstrated in the fact that we accept the prin- 

 ciples which he formulated, and pursue the methods which were his, in all 

 of our scientific activities. By merely recognizing and calling attention to 

 this fact, we show our respect for the man and v.iiat he has wrought far 

 better than by even the most earnest and sincere attempt to express our 

 sentiments in words. 



Consciously or unconsciously the influence of Linnseus is felt by all 

 modern scientific workers. System, or rather the ability to systematize, 

 is the key to progress in all lines of human endeavor; and science in particular 

 owes its present commanding position to those who have recognized and 

 applied the principles of Linnaeus in their work, and v/ho have accepted 

 and applied his rules for the nomenclature of natural objects. 



Linnaeus was pre-eminently a systematist, and it was this habit of mind, 

 more than an}i;hing else, wdiich raised him above his contemporaries in 

 science. Without his masterly ability to co-ordinate and arrange his work 

 in logical sequence and coherent groupings, his great powers of observation 

 would have lacked completeness. This ability was the special characteristic 

 which enabled him to revolutionize the scientific work of his age and to 

 influence so profoundly all that has followed. 



To Linnaeus may well be applied the words of Bourget: "In life every- 

 thing is unique, and nothing happens more than once." 



Arthur Hollick, Delegate. 



New York State Museum. 



Linn^'s contributions to systematic biology are brilliantly exemplified 

 by one of his species of fossil brachiopods, the Anomites reticularis. No 

 organism which ever appeared in the long history of the earth has had a 



