Lachesis Lapponica; Or, A Tour in Lapland, Volume 2 - Unveiling the Wonders of Lapland: Volume 2 of Lachesis Lapponica

by Carl Linnaeus

"The biographers of Linnæus have often mentioned the Journal of his Lapland Tour, to which he himself has frequently adverted, in various parts of his voluminous works, under the title of Lachesis Lapponica. The publication of this Journal has been anxiously desired; and so valuable was the manuscript considered, that on his whole collection and library being sold, after the death of his son, it was remarked that these papers at least ought to have been retained in Sweden, as a national pro[Pg viii]perty; the journey which they record having been undertaken at the public expense, and the objects illustrated thereby being, necessarily, more important to the author's countrymen than to any other people." -Preface

145 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 12, 2013

About the author

Swedish botanist Carl Linnaeus or Carolus Linnaeus, also called Carl von Linné, founded the modern classification, presented in his influential work Systema Naturae , for plants and animals.

This physician and zoologist laid the biological naming scheme of binomial nomenclature. People know and also consider him as the father of taxonomy and also ecology.

Linnaeus received most of his higher education at Uppsala, where he began giving lectures in 1730. From 1735, he lived abroad, studied, and also published a first edition in the Netherlands. He then returned in 1738 as professor of medicine at Uppsala. In the 1740s, people sent him on several journeys to find organisms. In the 1750s and 1760s, he continued to collect even minerals and wrote several volumes. People most acclaimed him of the scientists in Europe.

The Swiss philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau sent him the message: "Tell him I know no greater man on earth." The German writer Johann Wolfgang von Goethe wrote: "With the exception of Shakespeare and Spinoza, I know no one among the no longer living who has influenced me more strongly." Author Johan August Strindberg later wrote: "Linnaeus was in reality a poet who happened to become a naturalist". People called and complimeted Linnaeus, princeps botanicorum (prince of botanists) and as "the Pliny of the north."

According to German biologist Ernst Heinrich Haeckel, the question of origin of man began with Linnaeus. He described humans just as any other species and thus helped later research in the history.

Linnaeus with the first edition began listing humans among the primates. During time at Hartekamp, he took the opportunity to examine several monkeys and noted similarities with man. He pointed out basically the same anatomy and found no other differences except speech. Thus, he placed man and monkeys under the same category, Anthropomorpha, meaning "manlike."

The twofold theological concerns thus arose. Putting man at the same level as monkeys or apes lowered the assumed spiritually higher position in the great chain. Second, because the Bible says that God created man in His image (theomorphism), if He not distinctly and separately designed humans, then He well created monkeys and apes in His image, which many persons ably accepted not. Asserting man as that type caused the conflict between worldviews, based on science and theology; this conflict simmered for a century until the much greater and still ongoing creation–evolution controversy began in earnest when Charles Darwin in 1859 published On the Origin of Species .

Major celebrations marked anniversaries of birth of Linnaeus, especially in centennial years.
Numerous postage stamps and banknotes bore his image. Numerous statues honor him in countries around the world. Since 1888, the Linnean society of London awarded the medal for excellence in zoology. The parliament approved merger of Växjö University and Kalmar college on 1 January 2010 to Linnaeus University. People named the twinflower genus Linnaea, the crater Linné on the Moon and the cobalt sulfide mineral linnaeite.