ABSTRACT
In the case of Zoology, as in the case of Botany, it was largely due to Linnaeus that the binominal system of class names was generally accepted as an integral part of its nomenclature. The tenth edition of his Systema Naturae has been generally accepted as the basis for the naming of animals, in the same way as his Species Plantarum serves as “the point of departure” in the naming of plants. As the materials for biological study accumulated rapidly in the course of the eighteenth century they tended to produce a sense of bewilderment in the absence of a comprehensive scheme for the orderly arrangement or comprehension of the masses of detail. The classification of animals adopted by Linnaeus, in the eighteenth century, suffered from the same weakness, but, for a time at least, it proved to be more helpful in some ways.
