OPPONENTS OF LINN.£US. 127 



He had already completed in Holland the best part of his design. 

 The sway of his new system became wide-spread and predomi- 

 nant in a few years. There were, however, men among most nations 

 of Europe, who did not agree, or were at least discontented with the 

 laws of the new constitution of natural history, and Avho loaded Lin- 

 N^us with censure and blame. Nothing, however, could have been 

 more natural in a science which had never been thoroughly learnt, 

 never reduced to mathematical uniformity and perfeftion ; in a science 

 where opinions were frequently as different as the heads whence 

 they sprung — finally, in a science for which Ad an son alone pro- 

 posed sixty-five systems, though none of them has been received. 

 Among the German Anti-Linnteans, we ought especially to reckon 

 Dr. Klein at Dantick, who in 1742 published a treatise against the 

 new classification of the animal reign: H. Cranz, professor of 

 botany at Vienna, a violent antipode in most of his numerous botanical 

 works ; and among those who conducted themselves wnth more mo- 

 deration and dignity, M. de Necker and Dr. Hacc^uet, without 

 mentioning here the criticisms of many other Germans. — Among the 

 English we remark Professor Charles Alston of Edinburgh], — ■ 

 among the Dutch Camper; — among the Italians, Professor Julius 

 Pont ED era at Padua; Spallanzani and Dr. Cyri lli at Naples ; — 

 among the French, especially Adanson *, and the celebrated Count 

 de Buffon, who died on the 16th of April i788t. 



*' founded on the sex of plants be due to Burkhard— yet the execution of this sysiem is new 

 •« ar.dbelongs to Linn^us." See Andanson s Families desplantes. Par. i-j62, Svo. v. i p. xii, 

 * LiNNiEUS wrote thus of Adanson to Gesner at Zurich : " He is either mad orintoxi= 

 cated:" — insan'it out non sobrius est. Haller. on the contrary called him a fine head and a 

 •voorthy rinjal of Linn^us. — Lepidum caput, et amulum Linniso d'lgnum. 

 f See Buffon's Discours iur la maniere de trailer I histoire naturelle. 



1 This 



