6 
The Queensland Naturalist. 
VoL. I. 
temperature (c) degradation, and (d) a living individualizing 
principle manifested in every animal and synthesising its 
varied activities) ; (4) man’s place in nature, superiority in 
this respect to the animal, and in what his high rank con- 
sisted. — (Vid. Mivart, Oj). cit.) 
Apart from his merit as a naturalist, lie was especially 
celebrated for his literary style. The editor of the BiUio- 
theque des Ecrivains Francois thus alludes to it in referring 
to hF natural history ; — “ It is one of the most beautiful 
literary monuments that exist in any nation. What 
nobility, elevation, purity and elegance of style ! What 
brilliancy, what fire, what justness in his images ! What 
beauty, wliat truth, what naturalness in h s pictures ! 
with his pen all is embellished, and seems to receive new 
life (TransL), etc., etc. His tableaux relating to celebrated 
compatriots will be found to bear out the truth of this 
contention. That of the great naturalist-traveller, La 
Condamine, should liave an interest for us. 
He was an intimate of Louis XV., and the members 
of his court. Born at Bourgovne in 1707 : he died at Paris 
in 1788.” 
LINX/EUS. 
Karl von Linne (or Linnaeus), as one of a wider and 
more enduring fame, must receive more extended notice 
at my hands. He was tlie son of Nils Linnaeus ; born at 
Rashult, in Sweden, on 13th May (Swedish style), be., 
23 May (new style), 1707 ; his father being a Pastor of that 
place. Such has been the outcome of this event that the 
bicentenary of his birth was celebrated during May, 1907, in 
widely separated countries ; but, especially, at LTpsala, 
in his native land, under the joint auspices of its University 
— in which he had held the hrst chair of Botany — and the 
Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences of Stockholm, of which 
he was a founder; these bodies in their separate capacity 
issuing invitations to the ends of the earth, tliat homage 
might be paid to his memory. An interesting feature of 
the great gathering was the presentation of a special Linnean 
Medal that had been struck for the occasion, and that was 
granted by Sweden to the great British botanist, Sir Joseph 
Hooker. But the bicentenary of the great man’s birthday 
was honoured independently by bodies of scientific men 
in many other countries also. On the 23rd May, 1907, 
the Linnean Society of New South Wales held a special 
session for the purpose, at which the merits of Linnaeus 
were extolled from several different points of view by 
special speakers. The wave of interest in Linnaeus that the 
event alluded to gave origin to does not appear, however, 
to have been felt in Queensland. 
