THE HISTORY OF ZOOLOGY 501 



There is little doubt that the rapid accumulation of zoological 

 knowledge would have led to dire confusion in the subjecl ii 

 Linnaeus (1707-1778), the Swedish naturalist, had not devised 

 a rational system of classifying animals. His great work, the 

 "Systema Naturae," first appeared as a small pamphlet, in 

 1 735 ; it passed through thirteen editions, the last appearing in 

 ten volumes after the author's death; the twelfth edition was 

 in three volumes, and was published in 1 766-1 768. The tenth 

 edition, which appeared in 1758, is taken as the starting point 

 for our modern system of classification. He divided the animal 

 kingdom into six classes, these into orders, the orders into 

 genera, and the genera into species, and devised the binomial 

 nomenclature as we have already noted in Chapter II, each 

 animal being designated by two names, the generic name fol- 

 lowed by the specific name. His six classes consisted of the 

 Mammalia, Aves, Amphibia (including our present Reptilia and 

 Amphibia), Pisces, Insecta (including our entire Arthropoda), 

 and Vermes (comprising all the remaining invertebrates). He 

 instituted further brief diagnoses of species, so that a new- 

 species could be readily placed in its proper position in the sys- 

 tem. He did not, however, recognize the fundamental distinc- 

 tion between vertebrates and invertebrates, and in this respect 

 fell behind the older systematists, Aristotle, Wotton. and Ray. 

 His classification was further highly artificial in many ways, 

 since he relied too much on the characteristics of a few organs 

 instead of the entire structure of an animal. But the system 

 was correct, and so forms the basis of systematic zoology 

 to-day. 



There could not be a greater contrast to the dry, systematic- 

 work of Linnaeus than the entertaining and speculative writings 

 of the French naturalist, Buffon (1707-1788). His great work, 

 the " Histoire Naturelle," in many volumes, contains interesting 

 accounts of animals, their habits, and relations to their environ- 

 ments, but with no attempt at classification. In the earlier 

 editions of this book he held to the current views of special 

 creation with the immutability of species; thus he says, "We 

 find him, the Creator, dictating his simple but beautiful laws and 

 impressing on each species its immutable characters." Later, 

 however, he began to recognize a more intimate relationship 



