Abstract
THE first volume of the tenth edition of Linnæus “Systema Naturae”, published in 1758, is now universally accepted by zoologists as the starting point for the application of the rule of priority in the scientific naming of animals. This particular edition was selected for the purpose because it was the first in which Linnæus consistently applied a binomial nomenclature to the species, while, on the other hand, it was the last to be published during his lifetime. It is probably safe to assume, however, that only a small minority of zoologists have ever had an opportunity of handling a copy of this somewhat rare book. Even the reprint of it published by the German Zoological Society in 1894 has long been out of print and seldom appears in catalogues of secondhand books. The Trustees of the British Museum have, therefore, rendered a service for which zoologists ought to be grateful in publishing a photographic facsimile of one of the copies in their library. The particular copy which has been used for the reproduction can be identified because care has been taken not to expunge the marginal notes and library stamps which it carries, a precaution that may prove one day to be important in the case of a work where much may turn on the spelling of a word or the position of a comma.
Caroli Linnaei Systema Naturae
A photographic Facsimile of the First Volume of the Tenth edition (1758). Regnum Animale. Pp. viii + 824. (London: British Museum (Natural History), 1939.) 10s. 6d.
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CALMAN, W. Caroli Linnaei Systema Naturae. Nature 144, 269 (1939). https://doi.org/10.1038/144269a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/144269a0