34 



ME3I0RIALS OF RAY : 



And now, having mentioned the dihgence of this great 

 man, let me add, that it was such, and his labours so 



of all tlie students was most distinguished for his medical knowledge. Without 

 exception, aU declared Artedi to stand preeminent. Linnaeus longed to make 

 a friend of him, but the illness of his father compelled Artedi to leave Upsal. 

 He however soon returned, and then for the first time Linnaeus saw him. He 

 describes his person as taU and thin, with long black hair flowing over his 

 shoulders, and a face strongly reminding liim of the pictures he had seen of 

 J ohn Hay, the EngKshman. With minds similarly constituted, both devoted 

 to the same studies, and pursuing them under circumstances of difiicultyj and 

 sometimes even privation, these two young men soon formed an ardent friend- 

 ship, which was only broken off by death. Having ascertained each other's 

 acquirements, they laid down a plan of united study. All nature was to be 

 their field; chemistry, mineralogy, and the higher forms of animals they 

 studied together; the other departments they divided. To Linnaeus was 

 assigned the study of plants, insects, and birds ; to Artedi fishes and reptiles. 

 In th is manner they pursued their studies ; they made excursions together, 

 they assisted each other, and each rejoiced at the other's success. The 

 younger was not envious of the elder, nor the elder jealous of the younger, 

 and few pages of biography record a more beautiful instance of friendship 

 than tliis between Linnaeus and Artedi. This friendship, however, was early 

 interrupted by death. Artedi went to Amsterdam to assist an old apothecary 

 named Albert Seba in describing his museum, and whilst returning late one 

 evening from Seba's house, he fell into one of the canals, and the next 

 morning was found drowned. 



Linnaeus had no sooner recovered the shock that the death of his friend 

 liad produced, than he hastened to secure his papers for publication, in order 

 to fulfil a mutual testamentary obligation. He had, however, some difficulty; 

 Artedi had not paid his rent, and Seba owed him no more than would pay for 

 his funeral ; it was only through the kindness of Dr. Chfford advancing money 

 for their purchase from his landlord that Linnaeus was enabled to gain pos- 

 session of the manuscripts of Artedi. Linnaeus having carefully revised all 

 that Artedi had written on fishes, published it in an octavo volume at Leyden, 

 in 1738, with the following title: 'Petri Artedi Sueci Medici Ichthyologia 

 sive Opera omnia de Piscibus scilicet : Bibliotheca Ichthyologia ; Pliilosophia 

 Ichthyologia ; Genera Piscium ; Synouymia Specierum ; Descriptiones Specie- 

 rum. Omnia in hoc Genere perfectiora quam antea uUa. Posthuma vindicavit 

 recognovit coaptavit et editit Carolus Linnaeus, M.D., et Ac Imp. N.C Lin- 

 naeus did not pubKsh this work tiU after he had given to the world his ' Systema 

 Naturae," where he acknowledges how much he is indebted to the labours of 

 Artedi for the perfection of the arrangement of the department of Ichthyology. 

 Artedi had also assisted in other parts of this work of Linnaeus. The only 

 portion of the Ichthyologia which Artedi had left quite ready for the press 

 was the Philosopliia ; the other parts were, more or less, revised by Linnaeus. 



It is almost impossible to estimate the value and importance of tliis work. 

 It was all that it could be at the time when it was published. Willughby's 

 work on fishes, which was published by Ray in 1686, was an immense ad- 

 vance in point of arrangement and the distinction of species, over every other 

 previous work ; but what the ' Historia Piscium' of liay and Willughby was 

 to the Pandects of Gessner and Aldrovandus, the ' Ichthyologia' of Artedi 

 was to that work. The ' Ichthyologia,' in fact, establishes the science of 

 ichthyology on those sound principles which have since been extended, but 

 no^" ill any manner changed. 



