LINN ,EUS AS A ZOOLOGIST 



IEWED in a broad way, the services 

 of Linna3us to zoology were of sev- 

 eral kinds. 



The first and greatest, though 

 at the time of its conception regarded as 

 relatively unimportant, was the invention of 

 what has long been known as the binomial or 

 Linnsean system of nomenclature. The con- 

 ception of a permanent name for each type of 

 organized beings, thereby giving to the natur- 

 alist a concise method of indicating each unit 

 of the system, was so great an advance on any 

 previous method of handling zoological species 

 that it amounted to a complete revolution 

 in methods; comparable to that for the 

 arithmetical sciences, which followed the adop- 

 tion of the decimal Arabic symbols in place of 

 the clumsy Roman notation of numerals. 



That previous zoologists, like Rumphius, 

 had more or less inadvertently approximated 

 to this system at times, while giving names 

 to animals, does not diminish the credit due 

 to Linnaeus for erecting the method into a 



1 This section has been contributed by Dr. William H. Ball. 



(67) 



