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LINNAEUS

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Originally appearing in Volume V16, Page 733 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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LINNAEUS , the name usually given to CARL VON LINNE (1707-1778), See also:

Swedish botanist, who was See also:born on the 13th of May, O.S. (May 23, N.S.) 1707 at Rashult, in the See also:province of Smaland, See also:Sweden, and was the eldest See also:child of Nils Linnaeus the comminister, afterwards pastor, of the See also:parish, and See also:Christina Brodersonia, the daughter of the previous See also:incumbent. In 1717 he was sent to the See also:primary school at Wexio, and in 1724 he passed to the gymnasium. His interests were centred on See also:botany, and his progress in the studies considered necessary for See also:admission to See also:holy orders, for which he was intended, was so slight that in 1726 his See also:father was recommended to apprentice him to a tailor or shoemaker. He was saved from this See also:fate through Dr Rothman, a physician in the See also:town, who expressed the belief that he would yet distinguish himself in See also:medicine and natural See also:history, and who further instructed him in See also:physiology. In 1727 he entered the university of See also:Lund, but removed in the following See also:year to that of See also:Upsala. There, through lack of means, he had a hard struggle until, in 1729, he made the acquaintance of Dr See also:Olaf See also:Celsius (1670-1756), See also:professor of See also:theology, at that See also:time working at his Hierobotanicon, which saw the See also:light nearly twenty years later. Celsius, impressed with Linnaeus's knowledge and botanical collections, and finding him necessitous, offered him See also:board and lodging. During this See also:period, he came upon a critique which ultimately led to the See also:establishment of his artificial See also:system of plant See also:classification. This was a See also:review of Sebastien Vaillant's Serino de Structura Florum (See also:Leiden, 1718), a thin See also:quarto in See also:French and Latin; it set him upon examining the stamens and pistils of See also:flowers, and, becoming convinced of the See also:paramount importance of these See also:organs, he formed the See also:idea of basing a system of arrangement upon them. Another See also:work by Wallin, Papos 4 (n- ev, sive Nuptiae Arborum Dissertatio (Upsala, 1729), having fallen into his hands, he See also:drew up a See also:short See also:treatise on the sexes of See also:plants, which was placed in the hands of the younger Olaf Rudbeck (166o-1740), the professor of botany in the university. In the following year Rudbeck, whose advanced See also:age compelled him to lecture by See also:deputy, appointed Linnaeus his adjunctus; in the See also:spring of 1730, therefore, the latter began his lectures.

The See also:

academic See also:garden was entirely remodelled under his auspices, and furnished with many rare See also:species, In the preceding year he had solicited See also:appointment to the vacant See also:post of gardener, which was refused him on the ground of his capacity for better things. In 1732 he undertook to explore See also:Lapland, at the cost of the See also:Academy of Sciences of Upsala; he traversed upwards of 4600 m., and the cost of the See also:journey is given at S30 See also:copper dollars, or about b5 See also:sterling. His own See also:account was published in See also:English by See also:Sir J. E. See also:Smith, under the See also:title Lachesis Lapponica, in 1811; the scientific results were published in his See also:Flora Lapponica (See also:Amsterdam, 1737). In 1733 Linnaeus was engaged at Upsala in teaching the methods of See also:assaying ores, but was prevented from delivering lectures on botany for academic reasons. At this juncture the See also:governor of See also:Dalecarlia invited him to travel through his province, as he had done through Lapland. Whilst on this journey, he lectured at Fahlun to large audiences; and J. Browallius (1707-1755), the See also:chaplain there, afterwards See also:bishop of See also:Abo, strongly urged him to go abroad and take his degree of M.D. at a See also:foreign university, by which means he could afterwards See also:settle where he pleased. Accordingly he See also:left Sweden in 1735. Travelling by See also:Lubeck and See also:Hamburg, he proceeded to Harderwijk, where he went through the requisite See also:examinations, and defended his thesis on the cause of intermittent See also:fever. His scanty funds were now nearly spent, but he passed on through See also:Haarlem to Leiden; there he called on See also:Jan Fredrik See also:Gronovius (169o-1762), who, returning the visit, was shown the Systema naturae in MS., and was so greatly astonished at it that he sent it to See also:press at his own expense.

This famous system, which, artificial as it was, substituted See also:

order for confusion, largely made its way on account of the lucid and admirable See also:laws, and comments on them, which were issued almost at the same time (see BOTANY). H. See also:Boerhaave, whom Linnaeus saw after waiting eight days for admission, recommended him to J. Burman (1707—1780), the professor of botany at Amsterdam, with whom he stayed a twelvemonth. While there he issued his Fundamenta Botanica, an Unassuming small See also:octavo, which exercised immense See also:influence. For some time also he lived with the wealthy banker, G. See also:Clifford (168 17J0), who had a magnificent garden at Hartecamp, near Haarlem. In 1736 Linnaeus visited See also:England. He was warmly recommended by Boerhaave to Sir Hans See also:Sloane, who seems to have received him coldly. At See also:Oxford Dr See also:Thomas See also:Shaw welcomed him cordially; J. J. Dillenius, the professor of botany, was See also:cold at first, but afterwards changed completely, kept him a See also:month, and even offered to See also:share the emoluments of the See also:chair with him.

He saw See also:

Philip See also:Miller (1691—1771); the Hortulanorum Princeps, at See also:Chelsea Physic Garden, and took some plants thence to Clifford; but certain other stories which are current about his visit to England are of very doubtful authenticity. On his return to the See also:Netherlands he completed the See also:printing of his Genera Plantarum, a See also:volume which must be considered the starting-point of See also:modern systematic botany. During the same year, 1737, he finished arranging Clifford's collection of plants, living and dried, described in the Hortus Cliffortianus. During the compilation he used to " amuse " himself with See also:drawing up the Critica Botanica, also printed in the Netherlands. But this strenuous and unremitting labour told upon him; the See also:atmosphere of the See also:Low Countries seemed to oppress him beyond endurance; and, resisting all Clifford's entreaties to remain with him, he started homewards, yet on the way he remained a year at Leiden, and published his Classes Plantarum (1738). He then visited See also:Paris, where he saw See also:Antoine and See also:Bernard de See also:Jussieu, and finally sailed for Sweden from See also:Rouen. In See also:September 1738 he established himself as a physician in See also:Stockholm, but, being unknown as a medical See also:man, no one at first cared to consult him; by degrees, however, he found patients, was appointed See also:naval physician at Stockholm, with See also:minor appointments, and in See also:June 1739 married Sara Morea. In 1741 he was appointed to the chair of medicine at Upsala, but soon exchanged it for that of botany. In the same year, previous to this See also:exchange, he travelled through See also:Oland and Gothland, by command of the See also:state, See also:publishing his results in Oldndska och Gothlandska Resa (1745). The See also:index to this volume shows the first. employment of specific names in nomenclature. Henceforward his time was taken up by teaching and the preparation of other See also:works. In 1745 he issued his Flora Suecica and See also:Fauna Suecica, the latter having occupied his See also:attention during fifteen years; afterwards, two volumes of observations made during journeys in Sweden, Wastgota Resa (Stockholm, 1747), and Skdnska Resa (Stockholm, 1751).

In 1748 he brought out his Hortus Upsaliensis, showing that he had added eleven See also:

hundred species to those formerly in cultivation in that garden. In 1750 his Philosophia Botanica was given to the See also:world; it consists of a commentary on the various axioms he had published in 1735 in his Fundamenta Botanica, and was dictated to his See also:pupil P. Loffing (1729-1756), while the professor was confined to his See also:bed by an attack of See also:gout. But the most important work of this period was his Species Plantarum (Stockholm, 1753), in which the specific names are fully set forth. In the same year he was created See also:knight of the Polar See also:Star, the first time a scientific man had been raised to that See also:honour in Sweden. In 1755 he was invited by the See also:king of See also:Spain to settle in that See also:country, with a liberal See also:salary, and full See also:liberty of See also:conscience, but he declinedon the ground that whatever merits he possessed should be devoted to his country's service, and Lofling was sent instead. He was enabled now to 'See also:purchase the estates of Safja and Hammarby; at the latter he built his museum of See also:stone, to guard against loss by See also:fire. His lectures at the university drew men from all parts of the world; the normal number of students at Upsala was five hundred, but while he occupied the chair of botany there it See also:rose to fifteen hundred. In 1761 he was granted a patent of See also:nobility, antedated to 1757, from which time he was styled Carl von Linne. To his See also:great delight the See also:tea-plant was introduced alive into See also:Europe in 1763; in the same year his surviving son Carl (1741—1783) was allowed to assist his father in his professorial duties, and to be trained as his successor. At the age of sixty his memory began to fail; an apoplectic attack in 1774 greatly weakened him; two years after he lost the use of his right See also:side; and he died on the loth of See also:January 1778 at Upsala, in the See also:cathedral of which he was buried. With Linnaeus arrangement seems to have been a See also:passion; he delighted in devising classifications, and not only did he systematize the three kingdoms of nature, but even drew up a treatise on the Genera Morborum.

When he appeared upon the See also:

scene, new plants and animals were in course of daily See also:discovery in increasing See also:numbers, due to the increase of trading facilities; he devised schemes of arrangement by which these acquisitions might be sorted See also:pro-visionally, until their natural See also:affinities should have become clearer. He made many mistakes; but the honour due to him for having first enunciated the principles for defining genera and species, and his See also:uniform use of specific names, is enduring. His See also:style is terse and laconic; he methodically treated of each See also:organ in its proper turn, and had a See also:special See also:term for each, the meaning of which did not vary. The reader cannot doubt the author's intention; his sentences are business-like and to the point. The omission of the verb in his descriptions was an innovation, and gave an abruptness to his See also:language which was foreign to the See also:writing of his time; but it probably by its succinctness added to the popularity of his works. No modern naturalist has impressed his own See also:character with greater force upon his pupils than did Linnaeus. He imbued them with his own intense acquisitiveness, reared them in an atmosphere of See also:enthusiasm, trained them to See also:close and accurate observation, and then despatched them to various parts of the globe. His published works amount to more than one hundred and eighty, including the Amoenitates Academicae, for which he provided the material, revising them also for press; corrections in his See also:hand-writing may be seen in the Banksian and Linnean Society's See also:libraries. Many of his works were not published during his lifetime; those which were are enumerated by Dr See also:Richard Pulteney in his See also:General View of the Writings of Linnaeus (1781). His widow sold his collections and books to Sir J. E. Smith, the first See also:president of the Linnean Society of See also:London.

When Smith died in 1828, a subscription was raised to purchase the See also:

herbarium and library for the Society, whose See also:property they became. The See also:manuscripts of many of Linnaeus's publications, and the letters he received from his contemporaries, also came into the See also:possession of the Society. (B. D.

End of Article: LINNAEUS

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