44 



demand a classification on natural principles into Classes, 

 Orders etc., based inter alia on comparative anatomical 

 investigation; in so doing he laid the foundation of a 

 scientific System pure and simple. Further, he reformed 

 the system of naming then in vogue, by laying down 

 strict and definite nomenclature rules for future use. In 

 all this work he was a pioneer, and he had found time 

 before reaching the age of 30 to devise and work out 

 the principles of a new science, when the sad accident 

 occurred by which his life's thread was severed. It is 

 futile to wonder what he might have accomplished for 

 Science had he lived to complete life's normal span; 

 what he did achieve in his brief day was great and 

 wonderful. Hence it is with pride that his fellow-country- 

 men of the present day may remember that he signed 

 himself, "Petrus Artedi Svecus", this "Ichthyologorum 

 longe Princeps", who was thus carried off in the flower 

 of his age, and that he was a true son of, and an honour 

 and an ornament to the land of his birth. It is not more 

 than fitting that a simple tribute of homage be here- 

 with paid, on the occasion of the 200th anniversary of 

 his birth, to one whose name will ever constitute a fair 

 and glorious memory in the annals of scientific research 

 in Sweden. 



