XII 



A CENTUKY'S PEOGEESS IN ZOOLOGICAL 

 KNOWLEDGE l 



ON the 10th of January 1778 died the great Swedish 

 naturalist, Charles Linne, more commonly known as Linnaeus, 

 a name which will ever be mentioned with respect and regard 

 in an assembly devoted to the cultivation of the sciences of 

 Zoology and Botany, as, whatever may be the future progress 

 of those sciences, the numerous writings of Linnaeus, and 

 especially the publication of the Systema, Naturae, can never 

 cease to be looked upon as marking an era in their develop- 

 ment. That work contained a systematic exposition of all 

 that was known on these subjects expressed in language the 

 most terse and precise. The accumulated knowledge of all the 

 workers at Zoology, Botany, and Mineralogy since the world 

 began, was here collected together by patient industry, and 

 welded into a complete and harmonious whole by penetrating 

 genius. 



Exactly a century has passed since Linnseus died. What 

 of the progress of the subjects to which he devoted his long 

 and laborious life ? This one century is a brief space 

 compared with the ages which have passed since man began 

 to dwell upon the earth, surrounded by living objects, which 

 have, more and more as time rolled on, awakened his curiosity, 

 stimulated his faculties to observe, and impelled him to record 

 the knowledge so gained for the benefit of those to come. 

 How does it stand in comparison with those which preceded 

 it, in the contributions it has thus acquired and recorded ? 



1 Presidential address in the Department of Zoology and Botany. British 

 Association. Dublin Meeting, 15th August 1878. 



