Abstract
WHEN Peter Camper, the great Dutch anatomist, was proposed for election as a foreign member of the Linnean-Society of London in 1788, he wrote refusing in very emphatic terms to be associated with a society which bore the name of the founder of modern systematic biology. The incident is typical of an attitude towards the systematist on the part of those cultivating some of the other branches of biology which did not begin with Linnaeus, and has by no means ended to-day. There is, however, one branch of biological research the dependence of which on the work of the systematist cannot be overlooked. The economic biologist, at any rate, must begin by finding out the names of the species of animals or plants with which he is dealing. Without their names he cannot profit by the experience of the past, nor can he transmit his results for the benefit of the future.
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References
Annals of Applied Biology, vol. 13, No. 3, August 1926.
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C., W. Taxonomy in Biology. Nature 118, 901–902 (1926). https://doi.org/10.1038/118901a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/118901a0