Carl Linnaeus(Swede. Carl Linne, lat. Carolus Linnaeus, after receiving the nobility in 1761 - Carl von Linne; Nar. May 23, 1707 - † January 10, 1778) - Swedish naturalist: botanist, zoologist and physician - scientist of the 18th century, the first president of the Swedish Academy of Sciences. In 1735, at the age of 28, he became a doctor of medicine. In the same year he published his main work entitled "The System of Nature" ("Systema Naturae"), that glorified his name. This work went through 12 editions during Linnaeus' lifetime; each time the author finalized it, clarified and supplemented it.
In his System of Nature, Carl Linnaeus was the first to propose a scientific classification of the then known plants and animals. At one time, the famous scientist of ancient Greece, Aristotle, described 454 species of animals. Two millennia have passed since then. Scientists have discovered and studied a large number of new animal species. Carl Linnaeus described 4,200 animal species and divided them into six classes: mammals, birds, amphibians, fish, worms, and insects. Plants he divided into 24 classes.
Linnaeus is a famous Swedish naturalist. In Sweden, he is also valued as a traveler who opened their own country for the Swedes, studied the peculiarities of the Swedish provinces and saw "how one province can help another." The value for the Swedes is not so much Linnaeus's work on the flora and fauna of Sweden, as his descriptions of his own travels; these diary entries, full of specifics, rich in contrasts, set out in clear language, are still being republished and read. Linnaeus is one of those figures of science and culture with whom the final formation of the literary Swedish language in its modern form is associated.
Member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences (1739, one of the founders of the academy), the Paris Academy of Sciences (1762) and a number of other scientific societies and academies.
Biography
early years
Carl Linnaeus was born on May 23, 1707 in southern Sweden - in the village of Roshulte in the province of Småland. His father is Nils Ingemarsson Linnaeus (Swedish Nicolaus (Nils) Ingemarsson Linnæus, 1674-1748), a village priest, the son of a peasant, his mother is Christina Linnaeus, nee Brodersonia (Swedish Christina Linnæa (Brodersonia), 1688-1733), daughter of a rural priest. The surname Linnaeus (Linnæus) is the latinized Swedish name for the linden (Lind): when Nils Ingemarsson went to study at Lund University, he, according to the custom of that time, replaced his real surname with a Latin pseudonym, choosing as it a word associated with the generic symbol Ingemarssoniv - a large tristovbur linden, that grew up on the lands of his ancestors in the parish of Hvitavrida in southern Sweden. In Sweden, Linnaeus is usually called Carl von Linne- by the name that he began to bear after granting him the nobility; in the tradition of literature in English - to call it Carl Linnaeus, that is, the name given at birth.
Karl was the firstborn in the family (later Nils Ingemarsson and Christina had four more children - three girls and a boy).
In 1709 the family moved to Stenbrukhultshved, located a few kilometers from Roshulte. There, Niels Linnaeus planted a small garden near his house, which he lovingly looked after; here he grew vegetables, fruits and various flowers, while he knew all their names. From early childhood, Karl also showed interest in plants, until the age of eight he knew the names of many plants that happened in the vicinity of Stenbruchult; in addition, he was given a small area in the garden for his own little garden.
In 1716-1727, Carl Linnaeus studied in the city of Växche: first at the lower grammar school (1716-1724), then at the gymnasium (1724-1727). Since Växjö was about fifty kilometers from Stenbruchult, Karl was at home only during the holidays. His parents wanted him to train as a pastor and in the future, as the eldest son, take the place of his father, but Karl studied very poorly, especially in the basic subjects - theology and ancient languages. He was only interested in botany and mathematics; often he even skipped classes, instead of going to school, going to nature to study plants.
Dr. Johan Stensson Rothmann (1684-1763), a district physician who taught logic and medicine at the Linnaean school, persuaded Nils Linnaeus to send his son to study as a doctor and began to study medicine, physiology and botany individually with Karl. The concern of the parents about the fate of Karl was related, among other things, to the fact that it was very difficult to find a job for a doctor in Sweden at that time, while there were no problems with working for a priest.
Education in Lund and Uppsala
Lund was the closest city to Växjö that had a higher education institution. In 1727, Linnaeus passed the exams and was enrolled at the University of Lund, where he began to study natural history and medicine. Linnaeus was most interested in the lectures of Professor Kilian Stobeus (1690-1742). Linnaeus settled in the professor's house; it was with the help of Stobeus that he largely streamlined the information that he had gleaned from books and his own observations.
In August 1728, on the advice of Johan Rotman, Linnaeus transferred to the larger and older Uppsala University, founded back in 1474 - there were more opportunities to study medicine. Two professors of medicine worked in Uppsala at that time, Olof Rudbeck Jr. (1660-1740) and Lars Rubergschwed. (1664-1742).
At Uppsala University, Linnaeus met his peer, student Peter Artedi (1705-1735), together with whom they began work on a critical revision of the natural-historical classifications that existed at that time. Linnaeus mainly dealt with plants in general, Artedi with fish, amphibians and umbelliferous plants. It should be noted that the level of teaching at both universities was not very high, and most of the time students were engaged in self-education.
Life in Holland
In 1735, Carl Linnaeus moved to Holland, where he defended his doctoral dissertation on malaria, after which he remained in this country for another three years. In Holland, Linnaeus was the personal physician of the mayor of Amsterdam, Georg Clifford. Clifford was one of the directors of the East India Company, while being interested in botany and created his own botanical garden, which featured plants from all over the world. Linnaeus was instructed to identify and classify them. By this time, Linnaeus had defined his basic biological ideas and published his works Systema naturae and the monograph Fundamental Botany, in which he outlined botanical terminology. To communicate with the most famous botanists of that time, Linnaeus visited London and Paris.
Return to Sweden
In 1738, Linnaeus returned to Stockholm, where he worked as a doctor in the Admiralty (Naval Department). In the same year, the Swedish Parliament awarded him the title of "royal botanist". Soon, Carl Linnaeus, together with five other Swedish scientists, founded a private community - the Stockholm Academy of Sciences. According to the results of the lottery, Linnaeus became its first president.
In 1742, Carl Linnaeus was elected professor of botany at Uppsala University, which he subsequently headed for the next 37 years. Linnaeus published his "System of Nature", where he outlined the system of plants and animals. He paid special attention to medicinal plants and the effects of medicines made from them. Having become a wealthy man, Linnaeus acquired an estate near Uppsala, became a kind of scientific center, and to which students and scientists from all over Europe came to study the basics of taxonomy.
In 1761, the Swedish king granted Carl Linnaeus the noble title of "von Linnaeus". The scientist himself came up with his noble coat of arms depicting an egg and symbols of the three kingdoms of nature (minerals, plants and animals). He was elected a member of the Paris Academy of Sciences and an honorary foreign member of the Russian Academy of Sciences. In the last years of his life, Carl Linnaeus was very ill and suffered three strokes. He died on January 10, 1778 and is buried in Uppsala Cathedral.
Classification
The classification of plants and animals proposed by Linnaeus had certain drawbacks. So, he grouped the plants according to the external signs of flowers, and not according to the true relationship between closely related species. The classification of animals was not entirely successful either. To the class of amphibians, for example, Linnaeus included not only amphibians, but also reptiles. And to the class of worms he counted all the invertebrates known at that time, with the exception of insects. But for those times, his taxonomy of animals and plants was a great step forward and contributed to the further development of biological sciences.
Carl Linnaeus had a special passion for plants. He devoted a lot of time to the study of plants from different countries and continents, collected in a number of well-known European collections and herbaria. He personally studied and described about 1,500 plant species.
Linnaeus not only studied the structure of plants, he was also interested in their physiology - growth, flowering, fruiting. At the same time, he noticed that in some plants the flowers open in the morning, in others - in the afternoon, in the third - in the evening, while in the fourth - at night. And they also close in a certain sequence, each at its own time. This led the scientist to the idea of creating a flower clock.
Systematics
Now Carl Linnaeus is the only author who can be referred to with only one initial (“L.”). In botanical nomenclature, this letter after the species name of the plant means that it was first described by Carl Linnaeus; For example, the botanical name for the coconut tree is Cocos nucifera L.
Scientific works
- Systema naturae sive regna tria naturae systematice proposita per classes, ordines, genera, & species. Lugduni Batavorum: apud Theodorum Haak. 1735.
- Bibliotheca botanica recensens libros plus mille de plantis huc usque editos, secundum systema auctorum naturale in classes, ordines, genera & species dispositos, additis editionis loco, tempore, forma, lingua etc cum explicatione. Amstelodami : apud Salomonem Schouten, 1736a. + 153 + 35 p.
- Fundamenta botanica quae majorum operaum prodromi instar theoriam scientiae botanices per breves aphorismos tradedunt. Amstelodami : apud Salomonem Schouten, 1736b. 36 p.
- Musa Cliffortiana florens hartecampi prope Harlenum. Lugduni Batavorum. 1736c. 50p.
- Critica botanica in qua nomina plantarum generica, specifica, & variantia examini subjiciuntur, selectiora confirmantur, indigina rejiciuntur, simulque doctina circa denominationem plantarum traditur. Seu Fundamentorum Botanicorum pars IV. Lugduni Batavorum : apud Conradum Wishoff. 1737a.
- Flora lapponica exhibens plantas per Lapponiam crescentes, secundum systema sexuale collectas in itinere ... 1732 institutio. Additis synonymis, & Locis natalibus omnium, descriptionibus & figuris rariorum, viribus medicatis & oeconomicis plurimarum. Amstelaedami: S. Schouten. 1737b. + 372 + p. + 12 tab.
- Hortus cliffortianus: plantas exhibens quas, in hortistam vivis quam siccis, Hartecampi in Hollandia, coluit vir nobilissimus et generosissimus Georgius Clifford … Amstelaedami: 1737c. + X + 502p. + 32 tab.
- Classes plantarum, seu Systemata plantarum. Lugduni Batavorum : C. Wishoff, 1738. 606 col. + P. 607-656
- Genera plantarum eorumque characteres naturales secudum numerum, figuram, situm, et proportionem omnium fructificationis partium. Lugduni Batavorum: apud C. Wishoff: G. J. Wishoff. 1742. 527 + p. Ill.
- Flora svecica exhibens plantas per Regnum Sveciae crescentes, systematice cum differentiis specierum, synonymis autorum, nominibus incolarum, solo locorum, usu pharmacopaeorum. Lugduni Batavorum : apud Conradum Wishoff: Georg. Jac. Wishoff. 1745. +419 p.
- Fauna Svecica Sistens Animalia Sveciæ Regni: qvadrupedia, aves, amphibia, pisces, insecta, vermes; distributa per classes & ordines, genera & species; cum Differentiis Specierum, Synonymis Autorum, Nominibus Incolarum, Locis Habitationum, Descriptionibus Insectorum. Lugduni Batavorum : Apud Conradum Wishoff et Georg Jac. Wishoff. Fil. conr. 1746. , 411 S. 2 Tafeln.
- Philosophia botanica in qva explicantur fundamenta botanica cum definitionibus partium, exemplis terminorum, observationibus rariorum, adjectis figuris aeneis. Stockholmia, Apud Godofr. Kiesewetter, 1751. + 362 p. + Portrait. + 9 tab. HTML at BotanicalLatin.org
- Species plantarum exhibentes plantas rite cognitas, ad genera relatas, cum differentiis specificis, nominibus trivialibus, synonimis selectis, locis natalibus, secundum systema sexuale digestas. Holmiae: L. Salvii, 1753. T. i: xvi + 560 p. T. ii: P. 561-1158 + p. Sect. Figure 1-3: HTML on the Project Gutenberg site
- Systema naturæ per regna tria naturæ, secundum classes, ordines, genera, species, cum characteribus, differentiis, synonymis, locis. Editio decima, reformata. Holmiæ : impensis direct. Laurentii Salvii. 1758. Bl., S. 6-823.
Karl Linnaeus (1707-1778), Swedish naturalist who created a classification system for flora and fauna.
Born May 23, 1707 in the city of Roshuld (Sweden) in the family of a pastor. From his father, young Karl inherited a passion for botany.
Having studied the natural and medical sciences at Lund (1727) and Uppsala (since 1728) universities, in 1732 Linnaeus traveled through Lapland (a natural region in northern Sweden, Norway, Finland and in the west of the Kola Peninsula). The result was the Flora of Lapland (1732; complete edition 1737).
In 1735, the scientist moved to the city of Hartekamp (Netherlands), where he received the post of head of the botanical garden; defended his doctoral dissertation on the topic "A new hypothesis of intermittent fevers."
Since 1738 he was engaged in medical practice in Stockholm; in 1739 he headed the naval hospital, won the right to open corpses in order to determine the cause of death. Participated in the creation of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences and became its first president (1739).
Since 1741, he headed the department at Uppsala University, where he taught medicine and natural science.
Linnaeus's most significant work is The System of Nature. The book was first published in 1735 and went through 12 editions during the author's lifetime. It was in this work that Linnaeus applied and introduced the so-called binary nomenclature, according to which each species is designated by two Latin names - generic and specific.
The scientist defined the concept of a species using both morphological (similarity within the offspring of one family) and physiological (presence of fertile offspring) criteria.
He established a clear gradation of systematic categories: class, order, genus, species, variation. Linnaeus based the classification of plants on the number, size and arrangement of the stamens and pistils of the flower, as well as the sign of one-, two- or polyecious plants. He believed that the reproductive organs are the most essential and permanent parts of the body in plants. Based on this principle, the scientist divided all plants into 24 classes.
Linnaeus discovered and described about 1500 plant species. The classification of the animal world proposed by him subsequently underwent significant changes due to new discoveries in the field of biology, but was revolutionary for its time. Its distinguishing feature is that man is included in the system of the animal kingdom and belongs to the class of mammals, a detachment of primates. The dual nomenclature system proposed by Linnaeus is still in use today.
Carl Linnaeus was born on May 23, 1707 in the village of Roshult in Sweden in the family of a priest. Two years later he moved with his family to Stenbrohult. Interest in plants in the biography of Carl Linnaeus manifested itself already in childhood. He received his primary education at a school in the city of Växjö, and after graduating from school he entered the gymnasium. Linnaeus's parents wanted the boy to continue the family business and become a pastor. But Charles was not interested in theology. He devoted much time to the study of plants.
Thanks to the urgency of the school teacher Johan Rotman, the parents let Karl go to study medicine. Then the university stage began. Karl began to study at the University of Lund. And in order to get acquainted with medicine in more detail, a year later he moved to Uppsald University. In addition, he continued to educate himself. Together with a student at the same university, Peter Artedi, Linnaeus engaged in the revision and criticism of the principles of natural science.
In 1729, an acquaintance with W. Celsius took place, which played an important role in the development of Linnaeus as a botanist. Then Karl moved into the house of Professor Celsius, began to get acquainted with his huge library. The basic ideas of Linnaeus on the classification of plants were outlined in his very first work, Introduction to the Sexual Life of Plants.
A year later, Linnaeus had already begun teaching, lecturing at the botanical garden of Uppsald University.
The period from May to October 1732 he spent in Lapland. After fruitful work during the trip, his book "A Brief Flora of Lapland" was published. It was in this work that the reproductive system in the plant world was described in detail. The following year, Linnaeus became interested in mineralogy, even publishing a textbook. Then in 1734, in order to study plants, he went to the province of Dalarna.
He received his doctorate in medicine in June 1735 from the University of Harderwijk. The next work of Linnaeus "The System of Nature" marked a new stage in the career and in general in the life of Linnaeus. Thanks to new connections and friends, he received a position as caretaker of one of the largest botanical gardens in Holland, which collected plants from all over the world. So Carl continued to classify plants. And after the death of his friend Peter Artedi, he published his work, later using his ideas on the classification of fish. During his stay in Holland, Linnaeus's works were published: "Fundamenta Botanica", "Musa Cliffortiana", "Hortus Cliffortianus", "Critica botanica", "Genera plantarum" and others.
The scientist returned to his homeland in 1773. There, in Stockholm, he took up the practice of medicine, applying his knowledge of plants to the treatment of people. He also taught, was chairman of the Royal Academy of Sciences, a professor at Uppsala University (he retained the position until his death).
Then Carly Linnaeus in his biography went on an expedition to the islands of the Baltic Sea, visited western and southern Sweden. And in 1750 he became the rector of the university where he taught earlier. In 1761 he received the status of a nobleman. And on January 10, 1778, Linnaeus died.
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May 23, 2007 marks the 300th anniversary of the birth of Carl Linnaeus (1707 - 1778), a Swedish naturalist who created a taxonomy of the three kingdoms of nature - plants, animals and minerals, who described about 10 thousand species of animals and plants. The Linnean collections are kept at the Natural History Museum in London. Moscow State University has several sheets of his herbarium.
Alexander Rautian, an employee of the Paleontological Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, tells how scientists see the discoveries of Carl Linnaeus today.
- Who was Carl Linnaeus after all, and what did he do?
- The main thing that they say about Linnaeus today in educational courses is wrong. They say that Linnaeus is the creator of a certain system. But the system that he created and thanks to which he became famous is not called a system at all in our time. In modern times, what Linnaeus did is called a definitive key. This is text with which you can identify a particular plant or animal. For example, it is asked, five stamens, less or more, etc., you choose and move from feature to feature and, in the end, you will recognize the plant.
Today we are striving to create a natural system of living beings that would reflect, first of all, their nature, and not just their external features. We believe that the nature of living beings is related to their evolution. And the vast majority of naturalists of the time of Linnaeus believed that the natural system should reflect the providence of God. And Linnaeus thought so too. He was sure that there are as many species as were created during the act of divine creation. He was, after all, the son of a Protestant minister, and was properly brought up in the appropriate Protestant spirit, and nowhere seriously deviated from this. True, it must be said that for a short time his compositions were banned by the Vatican.
Natural systems were tried to be created even before the birth of Linnaeus. The main obstacle to this was the lack of a developed feature space. Moreover, a developed feature space is required in the same way, both to create a defining key and to create a natural system. And here is the main contribution of Linnaeus to the creation of what we now call the system, that is, the natural system or phylogenetic system, this is, first of all, the creation of botanical morphology. It is clear that a lot was added after Linnaeus, but the foundations of botanical morphology were undoubtedly laid by Linnaeus, and here his merits are greater than any of his contemporary.
- Is it possible to say that Linnaeus, first of all, was an outstanding botanist?
And he considered himself a botanist. But his system of nature included all three kingdoms—it included plants, animals, and even minerals. The principle by which the systems of minerals, plants and animals were built by Linnaeus was the same - this is a definitive key. The key is the search engine. In the 20th century, a corresponding theorem was proved that a hierarchical organization is optimal for any search engine, if there are no additional properties that speed up the search. Linnaeus created a search engine for the most numerous natural objects that we even know. If we assume that the names of plants and animals are a kind of terms, then there are more terms in botany and zoology than in all other areas of science.
– What was the significance of his work for the development of science?
- Huge. He quite consciously decided to create an artificial system with the help of which any student could calmly determine the corresponding plants, animals and even minerals during practical classes.
Of course, far fewer species were known in Linnaeus' time than today. But still quite a lot - by the end of his life, Linnaeus knew tens of thousands of species. The next circumstance that is usually mentioned is that Linnaeus introduced the so-called binomial nomenclature.
The name of organisms in the pre-Linneev period was constructed as follows: the genus was indicated, and then the specific difference followed. But the specific difference could not be formulated in the form of a single word. And the names of the species turned into rather long phrases. The most important achievement of the introduction of dual nomenclature by Linnaeus is that he divided the definition of a species into a characteristic and a name. It is difficult to overestimate the importance of this circumstance. The main advantage of any name is that it should be conservative. If the names change every day, then it is impossible to remember them. And the characteristic is dynamic by definition, and in Linnaeus' Philosophy of Shoes it is written that with the introduction of each new species into the genus, the characteristics of all species of this genus may change. Because you now need to distinguish each of the former species from one new species of the same genus. Thus, we received conservative names and dynamic characteristics (or diagnoses). And we owe this achievement to Linnaeus.
Another circumstance that is usually not talked about - and this is very sad. When one characterizes science in general, the first thing that is mentioned is the scientific method. The science of modern times is characterized primarily from the point of view of the method, as the era of experience and experiment. And empirical facts are a collection that serves as an object of comparison. Science fundamentally does not deal with single events, it deals with reproducible and repetitive events. Another thing is that the invariance of events can be established using the comparative method and only it. And Linnaeus created his own method. The first serious work devoted to the comparative method in modern science is Linnaeus' Philosophy of Botany. When you take the "Philosophy of Botany", it was first translated into Russian only in 1989, but this work can be read as modern. Because the descriptive method of Linnaeus is the tool that even today only the most competent biologists are good at. His descriptive method has not essentially become obsolete in the last three hundred years.
Carl Linnaeus in Lapland clothes. 1737. Netherlands.
What kind of person was Linnaeus?
– Linnaeus, of course, is first of all spoken of as a scientist. And I think he was a wonderful person. Linnaeus gained world fame when he left his wild country - from what was then Sweden. This is the periphery of Europe with a barely developed science, with an archaic education - this is the era of Charles XII and his heirs. In general, his trip to Europe was stimulated by domestic circumstances: he decided to get married. And his father told him that it was impossible to marry a beggar. How can a person engaged in science acquire prosperity? With a degree. In those days, a degree in Sweden could not be obtained at all. Therefore, it is not surprising that he went to defend his dissertation in Germany. By the way, he defended his thesis for a medical degree and it is clear why - medicine is just what brought money. Botany didn't bring money even then.
But when he returned to Sweden, he became the royal physician and, accordingly, the chief physician of Sweden.
He began to write his main works around 1730, but he said that everything that he managed to do in his life was thought out by him until the age of 27. And this is very similar to the truth. Because when we see how many books were published in a very short time after his arrival in Europe. In fact, the boy came to defend his degree and began to publish one book after another. Moreover, these are books that immediately acquired world fame. But this happened because the need to marry made him go to Europe. And he not only received world fame, he received huge money for those times. The father of his future wife, seeing how famous and wealthy Linnaeus had become, sent him a letter where he wrote: you, apparently, are not going to return to your homeland and, probably, my daughter can consider herself free. Linnaeus was already engaged to his fiancee, and in the Protestant world this was a very serious commitment. And Linnaeus left everything and left for Sweden almost immediately after receiving the letter. For him, love for a woman was not an empty phrase. And he spent his whole life with this woman.
For his scientific merits, Karl Linnaeus received the dignity of a count with a coat of arms, as expected. His motto is: "Deeds increase fame."
Who is Carl Linnaeus, contribution to science, what are his? What is this natural scientist known for? Let's consider today.
How did Carl Linnaeus live, what is his biography?
The future scientist was born in 1707 in Sweden, in the family of a local priest. The family did not live well, his father had a small plot of land, where the young naturalist first discovered the world of plants. On the land plots of his parents, the boy collected various herbs and flowers, dried them and created the first herbariums in his life.
Like many outstanding personalities, Karl did not show great aspirations in relation to science as a child. Teachers considered him untalented and unpromising, and therefore did not pay much attention to him.
Time passed, the future scientist grew up, but interest in the living world did not fade away. However, his parents sent him to the Lund Medical University, where Karl studied many scientific disciplines, including chemistry and biology.
After being transferred to Uppsala University in 1728, the young man met his peer Peter Artedi. Later, it was in collaboration with him that Karl would begin joint work on revising natural history classifications.
In 1729, Charles met with Professor Olof Celsius, who was passionately fond of botany. This event turned out to be fateful for the young man, since the young man got the opportunity to access the scientific library.
First scientific expedition
In 1732, Karl was sent to Lapland by the Royal Scientific Society, from where the future genius brought a whole collection of minerals, plants and animals. Later, Linnaeus presented a report, which he called the "Flora of Lapland", but these works did not glorify the future scientist.
However, this report touches on very important points. Linnaeus first mentions such a concept as a classification of plants, consisting of 24 classes. The Swedish universities of those years were not able to issue diplomas and therefore there was a need to move to another country. After graduating from such an educational institution, the young specialist did not have the right to carry out either scientific or teaching activities.
Moving to Holland
In the first year of his stay in Holland, Linnaeus defends his dissertation and becomes a doctor of medicine. Nevertheless, the scientist does not put aside his passion for botany, combining medical practice and scientific activity.
In 1735, Linnaeus presents his outstanding work, entitled The System of Nature. It is this work that will glorify the scientist and form the basis of the classification of plant and animal species.
Linnaeus proposed the so-called binary nomenclature for naming species (used to this day). Each plant and animal was designated by two Latin words: the first - was determined by the genus, the second - by the species.
The classification of plants was simple. The number and location of leaves, the size of stamens and pistils, the size of plants, and other criteria were at the heart of determining the generic affiliation.
Binary nomenclature was enthusiastically received and quickly and easily took root in the scientific world, as it put an end to the existence of complete chaos in the classification of objects in the living world.
This work has been reprinted 10 times. The reason for this lies in the advancement of scientific thought and the discovery of new plant species. The final version was presented to the scientific world in 1761, where Linnaeus describes 7540 species and 1260 genera of plants. Belonging to the same genus determined the degree of kinship of objects of the plant world.
In his botanical works, the scientist for the first time determined the presence of sexes in plants. This discovery was created on the basis of the study of the structure of pistils and stamens. Until that time, it was believed that plants are devoid of sexual characteristics.
The scientist himself discovered about one and a half thousand new plant species, to which he gave an accurate description and determined the place in the classification he created. Thus, the plant kingdom was greatly expanded by the writings of Linnaeus.
Passion for zoology
Linnaeus also contributed to zoology. The scientist also classified the animal world, in which he singled out the following classes: insects, fish, amphibians, birds, mammals and worms. Carl quite accurately attributed the human species to the class of mammals, the order of primates.
Even having convinced himself of the possibility of interspecific crossing and the emergence of new species, Karl still adhered to the theological theory of the origin of life. Any deviation from religious dogmas Linnaeus regarded as an apostasy, deserving of blame.
Other classifications
An inquisitive mind did not give him rest. Already on the "slope" of life, the scientist made attempts to classify minerals, diseases and medicinal substances, but he did not succeed in repeating his former success, and these works did not receive an enthusiastic perception of the scientific community.
last years of life
In 1774, the scientist fell seriously ill. In the struggle for his life, he spent four whole years and in 1778 the outstanding botanist died. Nevertheless, his merits to science can hardly be overestimated, since Linnaeus "laid the foundation" of botany and zoology and largely determined the trends of further development. In London, to this day there is a scientific society that bears the name of a great scientist, at the same time being one of the leading scientific centers.
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