Carl Linnaeus

Carl Linnaeus (1707-1778) was a Swede, a physician, a taxonomist, a zoologist, and a botanist. While he had a lot of accomplishments his crowning achievement was developing the categorizing system that we still use today known as binomial nomenclature or, to put it more plainly, naming species of living things. Whenever you see a botanical or zoological with L. it’s an author citation for Linnaeus. For example, a red maple was given the name or binomial Acer rubrum by Linnaeus so the full scientific specie’s name is Acer rubrum L. But this is somewhat or a lot boring so here are some interesting things about Carl Linnaeus:

• His father was a nail maker and Lutheran Minister.

• While studying in Hamburg, Germany a big attraction came to town. It was labeled as the body of a seven-headed hydra (mythical snake creature)–a relic from the Crusades. So of course he wanted to inspect it. After being able to discern that it was fake, Linnaeus showed the town his scientific findings and was then swiftly chased out of town.

• As a physician, he struggled a bit to build his practice until he started treating men with gonorrhea. He was never lacking in patience from then on.

• Linnaeus believed what we now know as scurvy was brought about by a lack of sweat caused by inactivity and salt. He treated it with barberries which did the trick. It was more of a happy accident though. He didn’t know that scurvy is caused by a vitamin C deficiency and that barberries are full of it.

• He classified the pelican as a cryptid. What are other cryptids? Glad you asked–the Mothman, Bigfoot, Loch Ness Monster, and The Jersey Devil are all classified as cryptids. He did seemingly believe many mythological creatures had existed but were described inaccurately before his time. In other words, he believed that if there was an ape-like being that wasn’t a homo sapien there was a more logical explanation than just saying it was a monster. Or…maybe not. Honestly, it’s hard to tell. Some say many of his writings were tongue-in-cheek, but he classified mythological creatures extensively, it was the 1700s, and you should hear about what he thought of the Venus Flytrap.

• He believed the Venus Flytrap was an abomination if it turned out to truly be carnivorous because it would go against the hierarchy that God intended. He hypothesized that instead, it must be some kind of refuge for insects.

• Nils Rosen was a scientist, doctor, professor, and rival to Linnaeus at Uppsala University. Linnaeus had previously studied under Rosen so it’s no surprise Rosen was upset when his former student was given a position he felt the young upstart wasn’t qualified for. Rosen succeeded in getting Linnaeus demoted and not long after Linnaeus tried to attack him with a sword. In later years Rosen forgave him for the murder attempt and credited Linnaeus for curing him of “Uppsala fever” also called “the ague” which was a strain of malarial.

• Many credit him with the index card since he used small cards to organize his massive amount of information.

• Linnaeus died in 1778 at the age of 70 after a series of strokes.