ABSTRACT
Most naturalists after Charles Linnaeus, whose great services in systematic and descriptive natural history won for him such high authority, and followed in his footsteps, they assumed, in the sense of Linnaeus, an independent creation of individual species, in conformity with the Mosaic account of creation. The real matter of dissension in the contest carried on by naturalists as to the origin of organisms, their creation and development, lies in the conceptions which are entertained about the nature of species. The Creator, however, according to Louis Agassiz, can move only within six groups or categories: the species, genus, family, order, class, and type. Naturalists either agree with Linnaeus, or look upon the different species as distinct forms of creation, independent of one another, or they assume with Charles Darwin their blood-relationship. The progress from Linnaeus’ artificial system to George Cuvier’s natural system was exceedingly important.
