20 
The Queensland Naturalist. 
VOL. I. 
Worn vvith the labours of a strenuous life, Linnaeus 
wrote l)ut little pertaining to zoology subsequent ,to 1770 
— eight years before his death, that had been preceded hy 
paral 3 /sis in 1774; consequently, even if the collections 
pertaining to Southern Hemisphere and Australia secured 
by discixiles of his. Banks, Solander, Sparmann, and the 
Forsters, amassed during Captain Cook’s three voyages, 
1769-70, 1772, and 1777, were available at all, they did not 
come within his field of operations. 
General Erudition and Reverence for Authority, 
In addition to these features in Linnaeus’ work already 
alluded to, mention may be made ot his great erudition, 
and his mastery of what had been recorded by previous 
writers on the subject of animal or plant life. This remark 
is not alone applicable to the works of classical antiquity, 
Aristotle, Aelian, Theophrastus, Lioscorides, and Pliny, 
but to those whom he dignified with the title of Patriarchs 
of Botany^ : — Bauhin, Dalecham.p, Fuchsius, Tragus, etc. 
This erudition is shown, not only in his Systema Naturce, 
and in his Amoenitates Academicce, but in all his works. 
liallam, the historian, has suggested that in some 
cases he ignored what the labours of his precedecessors had 
accomplished, especially mentioning Gesner in this respect, 
but it is more probable that if he apparently did this, 
it was in conseqeunce of his having decided to drav on ancient 
sources first-hand, to which this great student of animal 
life — Gesner— v\ as also indebted. 
But his erudition had not cnly a retrospective tendency, 
for he made it his business to familarize himself also with 
all contemporary natural history literature as was practical 
to do in his day, and to see whenever possible examples 
of the animals, or plants of which it treated. 
Travel. 
He regarded it as consistent vith his purpose to trawel 
much. His firvst scientific journey' was an expedition into 
Lapland, when he was .25 years of age. Those who— like 
the present s]ieaker— have had an opportunity of reading 
that quaint work (published in 1811, by Sir J. E. Smith), 
entitled “ LacJiesis laponica,''^ containing an exact transla- 
tion of the young naturalist’s im.prom.ptu record of his 
itinerary , illustrated by wood cuts based on his crude 
drawings on the occasion of his tour, and have pursued to 
some extent the patli in Northern Europe that he then 
followed, also collecting plants, will appreciate, what interest 
in travel for Linnaeus consisted in. 
After a visit to Holland in 1735 for the purpose of taking 
his medical degree at Harclerwy'k, he in the following year 
proceeded to England, returning to Sweden in Julyy, 1-738,; 
