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The Celebration by the New York Academy of Sciences 



OF THE Two Hundredth Anniversary of the 



Birth of Linnaeus. 



Guy West Wilson. 



The two hundredth anniversiiry of the birth of Linuaeus, the great 

 Swedish naturalist whom we regard as the father of modern biology, was 

 fittingly commemorated by the New York Academy of Sciences. For some 

 time the officials of that organization had been i)erfectiug plans for the 

 observance of this anniversary. Perhaps few other societies in America 

 have at their command the resources for a celebration which would parallel 

 this one, as the New York Academy has affiliated with it all the learned 

 societies of the Greater C'ity and has at its disposal for such an occasion 

 the magnificent museums of the metropolis. It accordingly g^ve me no 

 small pleasure to receive the honor which the president of the Indiana 

 Academy of Science conferred upon me in asking me to i-epresent this body 

 at these exercises. 



At 9 :30 a. m. of the 23d of May the delegates from numerous American 

 and foreign societies and institutions met in the trustees' room of the 

 American Museum of Natural History, and, in company with the officers 

 of the New Yoi'k Academy, proceeded in a body to the lecture room where 

 the initial meeting was held. About three-quarters of an hour was devoted 

 to the reading of communications from the societies whose delegates were 

 present, and from a few noted foreign societies which were not represented. 

 These communications covered a wide range of topics, extending from greet- 

 ings from the various societies through outlines of the character of their 

 work and eulogies to the memory of Linnaeus to monographic considerations 

 of some phase of the work of Linnaeus. Of these last may be mentioned 

 the papers presented by the representatives of the Brooklyn Entomological 

 Society and of the Maryland Academy of Science. The first of these related 

 to the entomological work of Linnaeus and its relation to American ento- 

 mology, while the second was a learned and Interesting discussion of 

 Linnaeus and the flora of Maryland. This part of the program was followed 



