Illiger’s Prodromus 13 Nov 2009 Does anyone have a scan of Johann Karl Wilhelm Illiger’s Prodromus systematis et mammalium avium (1811), or at least the introductory section? It appears that Illiger is the one who introduced the rank of family to the Linnean system, and I’d like to find out more. Late note: Thanks to reader Veronica Abbass, I have the link. It wasn’t visible from Australia for some strange reason. And as far as I can make out the Latin in the Lectori, he introduces family on page x as necessary because there are too many genera to group into orders. Biology History Natural Classification Systematics
Species and systematics Taxonomy, the fading field 2 Jun 2009 A very nice piece in The Scientist (free registration) points out how traditional taxonomy is being replaced by the sexier molecular techniques (no mention of barcoding), and how this means that important connections between species are being missed, as they rapidly disappear. Read More
Biology Taxonomist’s revenge 21 Jun 2009 There’s a long and distinguished history of taxonomists taking revenge upon friends and enemies (sometimes simultaneously!) by naming unpleasant things after them. Linnaeus himself named an ugly useless weed after his major critic, Siegesbeck, who had attacked the “sexual system” of Linnaean botany. More recently, Quentin Wheeler named three types… Read More
Epistemology Definitions of atheism 24 Jun 200919 Apr 2013 I have religious friends, and atheist friends, and they both disagree with me on one point: my claim that I am not an atheist. My religious friends note that I lack a belief in God, and therefore I am not with them. My atheist friends note the same thing and… Read More
Thanks Veronica, but I have to pay for that version. And Gallica lacks a copy. It’s a dual German/Latin edition, by the way.
It doesn’t help in this case, but if you’re not already aware of http://www.biolib.de it’s worth you taking a note. Internet Archive has a 1800 book by Illiger. Apparently so does Google Books, but it’s one of those ones that don’t come up on searches. (I don’t know why – are some books restricted to US readers?)