PBBRUA»7, 1889.] 



THE YOUNG NATURALIST. 



25 



the chair of Natural Science at the Swedish University. The general 

 aim and scope of the works of Linnseus are so well known that it will 

 be needless to refer to them in detail. Of course the " Systema 

 Naturae" was his chef d'ceuvre, and the work that has immortalized his 

 name. A first edition of fourteen folio sheets was published in 1735, 

 and new and fuller editions were issued at intervals over a space of 

 some thirty years. 



Without referring to the Linnean method of arrangement in other 

 departments of nature, we will briefly examine his Entomological and 

 more especially his Coleopterous system. His orders of insects were 

 divided by wing characteristics, and roughly correspond to these now 

 accepted. You must remember that although several authors had 

 previously classified insects as a whole, no one had attempted to 

 classify each order in anything like a comprehensive manner. You 

 will observe the coleoptera here are divided entirely by the antennas 

 into three divisions, a method which leaves much to be desired, as is 

 easily seen by the unnatural juxtaposition of remote genera which it 

 brings about. You will see that there are but thirty genera, and the 

 last, Forficula is not coleopterous at all, but nearly all the other genera 

 have become the foundation of modern families. 



But the great and merited fame of Linnaeus rests not so much on 

 the scientific accuracy of his classification, as on the fact that he 

 really originated all scientific nomenclature. Before his time genera 

 were indefinite and shadowy, and specific names were often of two or 

 three words, but Linnaeus not only divided all the then known forms 

 of nature into settled and distinct genera, but fixed an unalterable 

 word to indicate each species ; this word as we know, and which he 

 called' the trivial name, we the specific, must always be either ad- 

 jectival, qualifying the generic name and agreeing with it in gender, or 

 else a proper name, as is common among the Lepidoptera, " Ma- 

 chaon," " Aglaia," for instance. This specific and generic name came 

 to be equivalent to the christian and surname of men, and as many 

 individuals bear the same christian name without loosing 

 their identity, so such names as mollis, mfa, ater, &c. are repeated 

 over and over again without creating confusion among species. The 

 herculean work of Linnaeus was, like a second Adam, to find a name 

 for each separate organism, and although his classification has been 

 to a great extent, especially in botany, disproved, the system of 

 nomenclature which he originated is now the framework of all our more 

 accurate knowledge, and as it were the rudiments of the universal 

 language of science. 



