Biology and Its Makers / With Portraits and Other Illustrations

by William A. Locy

Willughby died in 1662, at the age of thirty-eight, leaving an annuity to Ray, and charging him with the education of his two sons, and the editing of his manuscripts. Ray performed these duties as a faithful friend and in a generous spirit. He edited and published Willughby's book on birds (1678) and fishes (1686) with important additions of his own, for which he sought no credit.

After completing his tasks as the literary executor of Willughby, he returned in 1678 to his birthplace and continued his studies in natural history. In 1691 he published "The Wisdom of God manifested in the Works of the Creation," which was often reprinted, and became the forerunner of the works on natural theology like Paley's, etc. This was an amplification of ideas he had embodied in a sermon thirty-one years earlier, and which at that time attracted much notice. He now devoted himself largely to the study of animals, and in 1693 published a work on the quadrupeds and serpents, a work which gave him high rank in the history of the classification of animals. He died in 1705, but he had accomplished much good work, and was not forgotten. In 1844 there was founded, in London, in his memory, the Ray Society for the publication of rare books on botany and zoölogy.

Ray's Idea of Species.—One of the features of Ray's work, in the light of subsequent development, is of special interest, and that is his limiting of species. He was the first to introduce into natural history an exact conception of species. Before his time the word had been used in an indefinite sense to embrace groups of greater or less extent, but Ray applied it to individuals derived from similar parents, thus making the term species stand for a particular kind of animal or plant. He noted some variations among species, and did not assign to them that unvarying and constant character ascribed to them by Linnæus and his followers. Ray also made use of anatomy as the foundation for zoölogical classification, and introduced great precision and clearness into his definitions of groups of animals and plants. In the particulars indicated above he represents a great advance beyond any of his precursors, and marks the parting of the ways between mediæval and modern natural history.

In Germany Klein (1685-1759) elaborated a system of classification embracing the entire animal kingdom. His studies were numerous, and his system would have been of much wider influence in molding natural history had it not been overshadowed by that of Linnæus.

Linnæus or Linné.—The service of Linnæus to natural history was unique. The large number of specimens of animals and plants, ever increasing through the collections of travelers and naturalists, were in a confused state, and there was great ambiguity arising from the lack of a methodical way of arranging and naming them. They were known by verbose descriptions and local names. No scheme had as yet been devised for securing uniformity in applying names to them. The same animal and plant had different names in the different sections of a country, and often different plants and animals had the same name. In different countries, also, their names were greatly diversified. What was especially needed was some great organizing mind to catalogue the animals and plants in a systematic way, and to give to natural science a common language. Linnæus possessed this methodizing mind and supplied the need. While he did little to deepen the knowledge of the organization of animal and plant life, he did much to extend the number of known forms; he simplified the problem of cataloguing them, and he invented a simple method of naming them which was adopted throughout the world. By a happy stroke he gave to biology a new language that remains in use to-day. The tremendous influence of this may be realized when we remember that naturalists everywhere use identical names for the same animals and plants. The residents of Japan, of Italy, of Spain, of all the world, in fact, as was just said, employ the same Latin names in classifying organic forms.

He also inspired many students with a love for natural history and gave an impulse to the advance of that science which was long felt. We can not gainsay that a higher class of service has been rendered by those of philosophic mind devoted to the pursuit of comparative anatomy, but the step of Linnæus was a necessary one, and aided greatly in the progress of natural history. Without this step the discoveries and observations of others would not have been so readily understood, and had it not been for his organizing force all natural science would have been held back for want of a common language. A close scrutiny of the practice among naturalists in the time of Linnæus shows that he did not actually invent the binomial nomenclature, but by adopting the suggestions of others he elaborated the system of classification and brought the new language into common use.

Personal History.—Leaving for the present the system of Linnæus, we shall give attention to the personal history of the man. The great Swedish naturalist was born in Rashult in 1707. His father was the pastor of the village, and intended his eldest son, Carl, for the same high calling. The original family name was Ignomarsen, but it had been changed to Lindelius, from a tall linden-tree growing in that part of the country. In 1761 a patent of nobility was granted by the crown to Linnæus, and thereafter he was styled Carl von Linné.

His father's resources were very limited, but he managed to send his son to school, though it must be confessed that young Linnæus showed little liking for the ordinary branches of instruction. His time was spent in collecting natural-history specimens, and his mind was engaged in thinking about them. The reports of his low scholarship and the statement of one of his teachers that he showed no aptitude for learning were so disappointing to his father that, in 1726, he prepared to apprentice Carl to a shoemaker, but was prevented from doing so through the encouragement of a doctor who, being able to appreciate the quality of mind possessed by the young Linnæus, advised allowing him to study medicine instead of preparing for theology.

Accordingly, with a sum amounting to about $40, all his father could spare, he set off for the University of Lund, to pursue the study of medicine. He soon transferred to the University of Upsala, where the advantages were greater. His poverty placed him under the greatest straits for the necessities of life, and he enjoyed no luxuries. While in the university he mended his shoes, and the shoes which were given to him by some of his companions, with paper and birch-bark, to keep his feet from the damp earth. But his means did not permit of his taking his degree at Upsala, and it was not until eight years later, in 1735, that he received his degree in Holland.

At Upsala he was relieved from his extreme poverty by obtaining an assistant's position, and so great was his knowledge of plants that he was delegated to read the lectures of the aged professor of botany, Rudbeck.