Organizing Information : The Language Of Science

Abstract

In June 1735, The Twenty-Eight-Year-Old Carl Von Linné, Known To US as Linnaeus (1707–1778), arrived in the Netherlands to obtain a doctorate. He headed for Harderwijk, a little university town known for its instant degrees. After a few formalities, he presented his thesis, which he had brought with him from Sweden. Six days after arriving, he was awarded a doctor of medicine degree. Though Linnaeus was undoubtedly eager to get his degree, the real purpose of his trip was to meet other botanists. Before arriving, he had already lectured at the University of Uppsala in Sweden and had traveled to Lapland—then as remote and exotic as Siberia or North America—to seek plants unknown to botanists. He chose Holland because it was the home of the great naturalist Hermann Boerhaave(1668-1738), superintendent of the botanical garden at Leiden. With colonies in Brazil, the Caribbean, South Africa, and the East Indies, Holland was the European center for botanical studies. Linnaeus did not arrive empty-handed; he carried a short manuscript entitled Systema naturae (The system of nature), containing his ideas on the reformation of botany. Boerhaave was so impressed that he urged Linnaeus to join an expedition to southern Africa and the Americas, promising him a professorship at Leiden on his return. Linnaeus declined the offer but accepted another that was even better. George Clifford, a wealthy merchant, had filled his estate with the most extensive collection of plants in Holland and even a zoo. He invited young Linnaeus to become his personal physician and superintendent of his garden, with a large salary, a huge budget, and luxurious living accommodations. In the three years he spent in Holland, Linnaeus not only reorganized Clifford’s garden but also published fourteen works in quick succession. The first were Fundamenta botanica and Bibliotheca botanica, dealing with the history of botany up to that time. Systema naturae, also published in 1735, divided nature into three kingdoms—animal, vegetable, and mineral—and presented a method of classifying the plant kingdom by class, order, genus, and species.