SEVENTEENTH AND EIGHTEENTH CENTURIES xiy 

 natural science at Upsala, then philosophy at Gottingen; owing to an essay- 

 he wrote attacking the Wolffian philosophy, which was predominant at 

 that time, he was unable to obtain an appointment in Sweden, with the 

 result that he went into Danish service as natural scientist on an expedition 

 to the East. There he died, leaving behind him singularly valuable collec- 

 tions. Another who took a post abroad was Daniel Solander, who had an 

 appointment in the British Museum, London, and died there in lySz; and 

 finally may be mentioned Karl Peter Thunberg (1743-1818), who held 

 Linnasus's professorship from 1784, after having travelled for nine years in 

 eastern Asia, particularly in the then unknown country of Japan, and col- 

 lected a rare amount of material in the way of plants and animals. More 

 independent than any of these others, however, was the Dane, Johan 

 Christian Fabricius (1745-180S). The son of a physician, he became an un- 

 dergraduate in Copenhagen in 1761 and afterwards spent two years at Upsala 

 with Linnasus, with whom he formed a lifelong friendship. After returning 

 home he published several valuable works on entomology, in which he 

 applied Linnasus's method to the insects — the titles of his works corre- 

 spond to Linnasus's, as will be seen from the bibliography at the end of this 

 book — and greatly increased the knowledge of that class of animals. Abroad 

 he was highly esteemed; at home, on the other hand, he received but little 

 encouragement. After a long period of waiting he eventually became professor 

 at Kiel, on very poor terms, wherefore he spent most of his later years abroad, 

 chiefly in Paris, where he had many friends. Of Linnasus's personal pupils 

 he was perhaps the one who, besides strictly applying his master's system, 

 likewise understood best how to employ it for his own researches, which 

 were of lasting value. 



Development of systematic biology after Linnaus 

 For it was not long before the Linnasan natural science began in a general 

 way to degenerate into a spiritless task for collectors and describers, who 

 merely aimed at discovering and incorporating in the system as many fresh 

 species as possible, at the very highest in the hope of being able to use them 

 to some practical purpose for the benefit of mankind — an idea which very 

 much attracted that "age of utility" and which, it is true, Linnaeus himself 

 also strongly emphasized. On the other hand, they neglected to cherish and 

 develop those ideas for the future by which Linnasus himself set such store — 

 the natural system and the study of the conditions of life in nature. The 

 result was that the system of descriptive classification, which has so often 

 been called Linnasan science, actually became an expression for a quite 

 limited part of the master's high aims; it certainly became, and has remained 

 so to this very day, a necessary basis for the future progress of biology, as 

 it is also a pedagogically indispensable introduction to that science; but it 

 has also been possible to practise it without any deep insight into the phe- 



