56 NATURAL HISTORY. 



The later years of the life of Linnaeus were embittered 

 by domestic annoyances and by failing health. In 1772, 

 he had a slight attack of apoplexy, after which his health 

 rapidly declined ; and his remaining years present us, for 

 the most part, with nothing but the melancholy picture of 

 constantly increasing physical decrepitude and mental 

 infirmity. Exhausted with constant suffering, he died on 

 the loth of January 1778, in the seventy-first year of his 

 age. 



Having thus sketched in outline the principal incidents 

 in the life of Linnaeus, a brief consideration may be given 

 to the scope and results of his labours as regards 

 natural history. 



Like Ray, Linnaeus is best known as a botanist ; and 

 his fame as a zoologist is principally based upon his 

 classification of the animal kingdom. Ray, as we have 

 seen, adopted a classification of animals which, though 

 greatly in advance of anything which had previously 

 appeared, was nevertheless both artificial and in many 

 respects unnatural. Thus, the Vertebrata were divided 

 into primary groups in accordance with the single 

 character of the structure of the heart ; while minor groups 

 were established upon such trivial characters as the 

 possession of an aquatic or terrestrial habit of life. 

 Again, the primary divisions of the Invertebrate Animals 

 were founded upon such an entirely non-essential feature 

 as the mere size of the organism. 



The Linnean classification, like that of Ray, was 

 essentially an ' artificial ' one, in the sense that the 

 principle adopted in framing it was that of selecting some 

 one exclusive character, to which undue importance was 



