BICENTENARY OF LINNMUS 21 



LINN^US AS AN INTERMEDIARY BETWEEN ANCIENT AND 

 MODERN ZOOLOGY; HIS VIEWS ON THE CLASS 



MAMMALIA. 



By W. K. Gregory, M. A. 



In connection Avith the two hundredth anniversary of the birth of Carl 

 von Linn6, or Carolus Linnaeus, it may not be inappropriate to consider 

 him in his capacity of bridging over the gap between ancient and medieval 

 zoology on the one hand and modern zoology on the other, and further to 

 glance at the principles and facts upon which he based his two great con- 

 tributions to the broader knowledge of the class of which man is the domi- 

 nating member. For this purpose the history of zoology may be divided, 

 in a general way, into seven epochs: the Aristotelian, the Scholastic, the 

 Renaissance, the Raian, the Linnaean, the Cuvierian, and the Darwinian. 

 There are also two axioms which it will be well to bear in mind. The 

 first is, that Linnaeus became a point of departure in the history of modem 

 biology, only because he was in turn the product of the intersection of many 

 important historical series which ramify and intertwine indefinitely, and 

 stretch back into the remote past of every aspect of life. The second axiom 

 is, that every new idea, or, for that matter, every new event, is the fertile 

 hybrid resulting from the fortuitous crossing of several specifically distinct 

 old ideas or events. 



The Aristotelian Epoch. 



The first epoch under consideration is that of Aristotle, of the fourth 

 century B.C., and it may be characterized as the initial analytical epoch. 

 Aristotle's theory of the genetic relationship of the chain of beings from 

 polyp to man did not, of course, materially influence Linnaeus. The idea 

 of evolution was not destined to come to its fruition through Aristotle, the 

 schoolmen, or even in Linnaeus or Cuvier. The true relation of Aristotle 

 as a systematic zoologist to Ray and Linnaeus is exhibited in the following 

 well-known citations from "The Parts of Animals." 



" Some animals are viviparous, some oviparous, some vermiparous. The vivipa- 

 rous are such as man and the horse, and all those animals which haA'^e hair; and of 

 the aquatic animals, the whale kind, as the dolphin and cartilaginous fishes fin refer- 

 ence to the viviparity of certain sharks] (Book I, Chap. V). Of quadnipeds which 

 have blood and are viviparous, some are (as to their extremities) many-cloven, as the 

 hands and feet of man. For some are many-toed, as the lion, the dog, the panther; 

 some are bifid, and have hoofs instead of nails, as the sheep, the goat, the elephant. 



