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A translation of the Linnaean dissertation The Invisible World

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 October 2016

JANIS ANTONOVICS  and
JACOBUS KRITZINGER
JANIS ANTONOVICS
Affiliation:
Biology Department, Gilmer Hall, McCormick Road, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA 22904, USA. Email: [email protected].
JACOBUS KRITZINGER
Affiliation:
Department of Ancient Languages and Cultures, University of Pretoria, Lynnwood Road, Hatfield, Republic of South Africa.
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Abstract

This study presents the first translation from Latin to English of the Linnaean dissertation Mundus invisibilis or The Invisible World, submitted by Johannes Roos in 1769. The dissertation highlights Linnaeus's conviction that infectious diseases could be transmitted by living organisms, too small to be seen. Biographies of Linnaeus often fail to mention that Linnaeus was correct in ascribing the cause of diseases such as measles, smallpox and syphilis to living organisms. The dissertation itself reviews the work of many microscopists, especially on zoophytes and insects, marvelling at the many unexpected discoveries. It then discusses and quotes at length the observations of Münchhausen suggesting that spores from fungi causing plant diseases germinate to produce animalcules, an observation that Linnaeus claimed to have confirmed. The dissertation then draws parallels between these findings and the contagiousness of many human diseases, and urges further studies of this ‘invisible world’ since, as Roos avers, microscopic organisms may cause more destruction than occurs in all wars.

Type
Research Article
Information
The British Journal for the History of Science , Volume 49 , Issue 3 , September 2016 , pp. 353 - 382
Copyright
Copyright © British Society for the History of Science 2016 

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References

1 J.C. Roos, Dissertatio academica mundum invisibilem, breviter delineatura, thesis, University of Upsala, 1767 (C. Linnaeus as praeses). Linnaeus, C., Amoenitates academicae, seu dissertationes variae physicae, medicae, botanicae antehac seorsim editae, nunc collectae et auctae cum tabulis aeneis, vol. 7, Holmiae: Laurentii Salvii, 1769, vol. 7. pp. 385–408 Google Scholar. Throughout we leave Latin titles uncapitalized. In the interest of brevity, we have omitted given names of authors referenced.

2 Hjelt, O.E.A., ‘Carl von Linnés Bedeutung als Naturforscher und Arzt’, in Schilderungen herausgegeben von der Königlich Schwedischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, anlässlich der 200-jährigen Wiederkehr des Geburtstages Linné’s, Jena: G. Fischer, 1909, pp. 1–66 Google Scholar. Horstadius, S., ‘Linnaeus, animals and man’, Biological Journal of the Linnean Society (1974) 6, pp. 269–275 CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Broberg, G., Homo sapiens L. Studier i Carl von Linnés naturuppfattning och människolära, Stockholm: Almquist and Wiksell, 1975 Google Scholar; Terrall, M., Réaumur and the Practice of Natural History in the Eighteenth Century, Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2015 Google Scholar.

3 Blunt, W., The Compleat Naturalist: A life of Linnaeus, New York: Viking Press, 1971 Google Scholar. Landell, N., Doctor Carl Linnaeus, Physician. London: IK Foundation, 2008 Google Scholar.

4 For a recent discussion of counterfactuals in the history of science see Radick, G., ‘Presidential address: experimenting with the scientific past’, BJHS (2016) 49, pp. 153–172 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed.

5 Available online through the library of the Hunt Institute for Botanical Documentation at www.huntbotanical.org/databases.

6 Stearn, W.T., Carl Linnaeus. Species Plantarum. A Facsimile of the First Edition. Volume 1 with an Introduction by W.T. Stearn, London: The Ray Society, 1957 Google Scholar, Chapter 7, ‘The Amoenitates academicae and the authorship of the Linnaean Dissertations’, pp. 51–64.

7 Brand, F.J., Select Dissertations from the Amoenitates Academicae, a supplement to Mr Stillingfleets tracts relating to natural history, vol. 1, London: G. Robinson and J. Robson, 1781 Google Scholar. Stillingfleet, B., Miscellaneous Tracts relating to Natural History, Husbandry, and Physick. To which is added the calendar of flora, 3rd edn, London: J. Dodsley, 1775 Google Scholar.

8 DeLacy, M.E. and Cain, A.J., ‘A Linnaean thesis concerning Contagium vivum: the ‘Exanthemata viva’ of John Nyander and its place in contemporary thought’, Medical History (1995) 39, pp. 159–185 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed; Insulander, R. and Müller-Wille, S., ‘Linnés, Fundamenta ornithologica ’, Svenska Linnesällskapets Årsskrift (2000–2001), pp. 85–124 Google Scholar.

9 DeLacy and Cain, op. cit. (8).

10 DeLacy and Cain, op. cit. (8).

11 J.C. Roos, Dissertatio medica de lumbagine, thesis, University of Upsala, Upsala: Johan Edman, 1775 (J. Sidrén as praeses).

12 Olsen, S.S., Bibliographia discipuli Linnaei: Bibliographies of the 331 Pupils of Linnaeus, Copenhagen: Bibliotheca Linnaeana Danica, 1997 Google Scholar.

13 J. Sidrén, Dissertation de materia medica in regno animali, thesis, University of Upsala, 1750 (C. Linnaeus as praeses).

14 J. Salberg, Dissertatio medica de cholera, thesis, University of Upsala, Upsala: Johan Edman, 1768 (J. Sidrén as praeses). E.J.M. Petersen, Morbos exanthematicos, ut effectus certarum tempestatum, thesis, University of Upsala, Upsala: Johan Edman, 1768 (J. Sidrén as praeses).

15 DeLacy and Cain, op. cit. (8).

16 C. Linnaeus, Clavis medicinae duplex, exterior and interior, Stockholm: Laurentii Salvii, 1766.

17 Hansen, L., Carl Linnaeus. Clavis medicinae duplex. Two Keys of Medicine. From a Swedish translation with introduction and commentary by Birger Bergh, Gunnar Broberg, Bengt Jonsell, Bengt I. Lindskog. Translated by Peter Hogg. London: The IK Foundation, 2012 Google Scholar.

18 Full names and dates of authors are in the footnotes for the translation. For general accounts of their discoveries see Ratcliff, M.J., The Quest for the Invisible: Microscopy in the Enlightenment, Farnham: Ashgate, 2009 Google Scholar; Terrall, M., Réaumur and the Practice of Natural History in the Eighteenth Century, Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2015 Google Scholar.

19 This somewhat self-congratulatory statement is misleading as the concept of zoophytes had a long prior history. Osorio, C.G., ‘Sobre agentes infecciosos, zoófitos, animálculos e infusorios’, Revista Chilena de Infectología (2007) 24, pp. 171–174 CrossRefGoogle Scholar. In the 10th edition of the Systema naturae, Linnaeus simply raised the Zoophyta to the level of a class in the phylum Vermes. Linnaeus's persistence with the name ‘Zoophyta’ irritated James Edward Smith (1759–1828, his admirer and biographer, and founder of the Linnean Society), who remarked, ‘Even Linnaeus … has fallen into half-measures and ambiguities, which disgrace that part of his immortal Systema Naturae. Smith, J.E., A Selection of the Correspondence of Linnaeus and other Naturalists, from the original manuscripts, vol. 1, London: Longman, Hurst, Orme and Brown, 1821, p. 80Google Scholar.

20 There is a biological inaccuracy here. The segments of the tapeworm do not produce more tapeworms, nor is a segment self-sustaining, but dies after disarticulating from the body of the worm.

21 This is an allusion to an earlier Linnaean dissertation: H.C.D. Wilcke, Dissertatio academica de politia naturae, thesis, University of Upsala, 1760 (C. Linnaeus as praeses). For a recent analysis of early views on the role of insects in ‘the economy of nature’ see Wille, S.A., ‘The ichneumon fly and the equilibration of British natural economies in the eighteenth century’, BJHS (2015) 48, pp. 639–660 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed.

22 Not to be confused with Hieronymus Karl Friedrich von Münchhausen (1720–1797), nor with Gerlach Adolf von Münchhausen (1688–1770); see note 89 below.

23 Meaning Linnaeus himself.

24 Lowther, C.V., ‘Chlamydospore germination in physiologic races of Tilletia caries and Tilletia foetida ’, Phytopathology (1950) 40, pp. 590–603 Google Scholar. Kohler, E., Klinkowski, M., Appel, O. and Soraruer, P., Handbuch der Pflanzenkrankheiten, Bd. III, Die pflanzlichen Parasiten, 2. Teil, Berlin: Parey, 1970 Google Scholar. Fischer, G.W. and Holton, C.S., Biology and Control of the Smut Fungi, New York: Roland Press, 1957 Google Scholar.

25 An attempt to repeat Linnaeus's observations with what was probably the same microscope is reported in Nyman, H. and Nilsson, L., ‘Linnaeus and the invisible world’, Zoologica Scripta (2009) 38, Suppl. 1, pp. 17–24 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

26 J. Antonovics and M.E. Hood, ‘Linnaeus, smut, and the germ theory of disease’, manuscript to be submitted.

27 Fries, T.M., ‘Den Osynliga Världen. Akademisk afhandlung af Carl Linnaeus till svenska språket öfversatt’, Skrifter af Carl von Linné; utgifna af Kungliga Svenska vetenskapsakademien (1906) 2, pp. 215–244 Google Scholar.

28 Antonovics and Hood, op. cit. (26).

29 This refers to the number of the dissertation in the volumes of the Amoenitates. In the Lidén numbering of the theses in the Hunt Institute for Botanical Documentation, it is number 149.

30 John Ray (1627–1705).

31 ‘Insects’ was a term used for any small animals, even into the early 1800s.

32 This refers to Linnaeus.

33 ‘Seeds of Ustilago’ refers to spores of the smut fungi in the modern genera Ustilago or Tilletia, which cause smut and bunt diseases of cereals. Linnaeus claimed that these germinated to produce living animalcules. In Ustilago the spores germinate to produce a non-motile yeast-like stage. In Tilletia the spores form balls, which, when wetted, actively extrude a filiform stage that mates pairwise to produce structures that bud off and disperse sickle-shaped spores; these in turn mate and produce secondary hyphae (Lowther, op. cit. (24); Fischer and Holton, op. cit. (24)). Wheat is also infected by a seed-gall nematode, Anguina, that invades the ovary, where its progeny convert the grain into a black cyst that resembles a grain diseased by Tilletia. When this cyst is wetted, the small juvenile nematodes emerge and literally swim about with undulating motions characteristic of nematodes. This was observed and illustrated by John Turbeville Needham ( Needham, T., ‘A letter from Mr. Turbervil Needham, to the President; concerning certain chalky tubulous concretions, called malm: with some microscopical observations on the farina of the red lily, and of worms discovered in smutty corn’, Philosophical Transactions (1743) 42, pp. 634–641 Google Scholar). The original has Turbervill Needham as author. However, in an account of Needham's discoveries ( Roe, S.A., ‘John Turberville Needham and the generation of living organisms’, Isis (1983) 74, pp. 158–184 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed), the author is not aware of this possibility and suggests that ‘Needham was most likely observing the production of certain forms of water mould, species of fungus’. Therefore, because it is unclear whether Linnaeus had seen Ustilago, Tilletia or Anguina, we retain the original word Ustilago throughout the translation, and do not give it a modern scientific name.

34 In the sense of ‘after we were born’ or as little children.

35 ‘Baobabs’ (Bombax in the Latin original) are tropical trees in the family Bombacaceae. Bombax ceiba is the cotton tree. ‘Cucumber trees’ (Averhoas in the Latin original) are native to South East Asia and in the family Oxalidaeae. Averrhoa bilimbi is the cucumber tree.

36 ‘Others’ is liberally translated from commilito, meaning ‘comrade’, or ‘fellow soldier’.

37 Johann Nathanael Lieberkühn (1711–1756 ) was a German physician whose microscopes for studying blood vessels were called ‘wonder-glasses’.

38 Conrad von Gesner (1516–1565), Ulisse Aldrovandi (1522–1605), Francis Willughby or Willoughby (1635–1672).

39 Mathias de l'Obel (1538–1616), Rembert Dodoens (1517–1585), Charles de l'Ecluse (1526–1609), Jean Bauhin (1541–1613) and Caspar Bauhin (1560–1624), Joseph Pitton de Tournefort (1656–1708).

40 Charles Plumier (1646–1704), Patrick Browne (1720–1790), Nikolaus Joseph Freiherr von Jacquin (1727–1817), Johannes Burman (1707–1780), Hendrik Adriaan van Rheede (1636–1691), Georg Eberhard Rumpf (1627–1702).

41 George Edwards (1694–1773), Mathurin Jacques Brisson (1723–1806).

42 René Antoine Ferchault de Réaumur (1683–1757), August Johann Rösel von Rosenhof (1705–1759).

43 Georg Eberhard Rumpf (1627–1702), Philippus Bonannus (published Recreatio mentis et oculi in observatione animalium in 1684), Martin Lister (1639–1712), Antoine-Joseph Dezallier d'Argenville (1680–1765).

44 John Ellis (c.1710–1776); ‘sea fir’ (Sertularias in the Latin original) is a name for colonies of small marine animals (hydrozoans in the genus Sertularia) whose fern-like fronds are green because of the presence of symbiotic algae.

45 This is from Greek mythology. When Theseus entered the labyrinth, he allowed the thread of Ariadne to unravel behind him, so he could to find his way back. The metaphor is used by Linnaeus in his Philosophia botanica, Aphorism #156 ( Freer, S., Linnaeus’ Philosophia Botanica, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003 CrossRefGoogle Scholar) to emphasize the importance of his hierarchical system (classes, orders, genera, species) as a means of quickly determining the name of a species and whether it is new or not.

46 This possibly refers to so-called double flowers in which the ovary and/or stamens are replaced by petals. Such double flowers are sterile, thus showing the role of the ovary and stamens in reproduction.

47 A ‘prolepsis’ is a verbal device that anticipates a future argument against it. Linnaeus uses this word in the sense of an anticipated or pre-formed body plan. Two Linnaean theses on plant morphology and physiology have ‘prolepsis’ in the title: H. Ullmark, Prolepsis plantarum, thesis, University of Upsala, 1760 (C. Linnaeus as praeses); J.J. Ferber, Disquisito de prolepsi plantarum, thesis, University of Upsala, 1763 (C. Linnaeus as praeses). The explicit idea that organisms had a body plan (or Bauplan, from the German) was put forward later by the French biologist Cuvier (1769–1832). See also Stevens, P.F. and Cullen, S.P., ‘Linnaeus, the cortex–medullary theory, and the key to his understanding of plant form and natural relationships’, Journal of the Arnold Arboretum (1990) 7, pp. 179–220 CrossRefGoogle Scholar. They interpret ‘prolepsis’ more in the sense of accelerated development of particular plant parts.

48 Aconitum (as in the Latin original) refers to aconite or monkshood, a highly poisonous plant in the buttercup family. Extracts from it were used to alleviate the effects of the affliction known as St Anthony's fire caused by eating grain contaminated with ergot caused by the fungus Claviceps ( Guernsey, E., Homeopathic Domestic Practice, 2nd edn, New York: W. Radde, 1857 Google Scholar). It seems unlikely that aconite was used on such a large scale that it ‘rescued’ cereal growing in Europe. In 1746–1747 there were severe outbreaks of ergotism in Sweden and Europe ( Wellcome, H.S., From Ergot to ‘Ernutin’: An historical sketch, London: Burroughs Wellcome, 1908 Google Scholar), possibly because cold, wet summers at this time ( Chiune, I., Yiou, P., Viovy, N., Seguin, B., Daux, V. and Ladurie, E., ‘Grape ripening as a past climate indicator’, Nature (2004) 432, p. 289 CrossRefGoogle Scholar) may have favoured this and other fungal diseases.

49 Johann Jacob Dillen (1684–1747).

50 Mosses and lichens were used as filling for mattresses.

51 In modern parlance, the ‘economy of nature’ would be described as ‘ecology’. In 1749 Linnaeus, through his student Biberg, wrote a dissertation, Oeconomia naturae, where the roles of various species in ecological cycles, food webs, etc. are outlined. For English translation see Stillingfleet, op. cit. (7), pp. 37–129.

52 In the Latin original musci & muscae, and no doubt an intended verbal juxtaposition.

53 Abraham Trembley (1710–1784) demonstrated regeneration in the freshwater polyp Hydra.

54 ‘Of polyps’ (polyporum in the Latin original) refers to organisms such as Hydra that were studied by Trembley.

55 Bernard de Jussieu (1699–1777), Jean-Étienne Guettard (1715–1786).

56 Henry Baker (1698–1774), Job Baster (1711–1775), August Johann Rösel von Rosenhof (1705–1759), Martin Frobenius Ledermüller (1719–1769), Jacob Christian Schäffer (1718–1790).

57 ‘Vorticellae’ refers to Vorticella, a genus of stalked, bell-shaped, ciliated protozoan.

58 ‘Worms’ (vermes in the Latin original) was used by Linnaeus for many kinds of non-arthropod invertebrate animals.

59 ‘Gemmae’ are reproductive dispersal structures produced by vegetative budding.

60 This sentence appears later in the original Roos dissertation (at the end of Section IV, p. 9), but was moved to this position in the Amoenitates version, presumably by Linnaeus. It was replaced with a sentence listing the various Nautilus species (see note 82 below). Giuseppe Vianelli's work, published in 1749, on luminescent animals is mentioned by Linnaeus in a letter to Bernhard de Jussieu on 30 June 1749 (Linnaean Correspondence L1084) and became the subject of a dissertation by one of his students (C.F. Adler, Noctiluca marina, thesis, University of Upsala, Upsala: Hojer, 1752 (Praeses C. Linnaeus)).

61 ‘Diana's tree’, also known as the philosopher's tree or arbor philosophorum, is a tree-like structure produced by adding mercury to a solution of silver nitrate. This arborescence led medieval philosophers to theorize the existence of life in the kingdom of minerals. Among alchemists, Diana symbolized silver.

62 Luigi Ferdinando Marsigli (or Marsili) (1658–1730).

63 Jean-André Peyssonnel (1694–1759) found that ‘coral flowers’ were in fact ‘insects’ housed within a stony structure; he was thus the first to demonstrate the animal nature of coral. (J. Vandermissen, ‘Fishermen's knowledge in the academic salon: how Jean Andre Peyssonnel's studies of ‘marine products’ at the coasts of Barbary and Guadeloupe influenced debates on the true nature of coral in eighteenth-century Europe’, Proceedings of the 5th International Conference of the European Society for the History of Science, 2012, available at http://5eshs.hpdst.gr/abstracts/243.

64 Linnaeus often uses the metaphor of entering chambers or opening doors when referring to new discoveries. In the Latin original, the words patefescisset aditum evoke the same image of a hidden treasure behind a close door.

65 John Ellis, a British linen merchant and naturalist, specialized in the study of corals. J. Ellis, An Essay towards the Natural History of the Corallines, and other marine productions of the like kind, commonly found on the coasts of Great Britain and Ireland, London, 1755. He corresponded extensively with Linnaeus. For his biography see J. Groner and P.F.S. Cornelius, John Ellis, Pacific Grove, CA: Boxwood Press.

66 Johann Jacob Dillen (1684–1747) was a German botanist who was appointed Sherardian Professor of Botany at Oxford. Linnaeus spent a month with him when he visited England in 1736.

67 Roos's original thesis reads differently – ‘Videbat haec ad singula petala seu denticulos florem ostendere animali alligato similem’ – but the meaning is similar: ‘He saw that these things showed a flower at the individual petals or denticles, similar to an attached animal’.

68 ‘Zoophyta’ was a name given by Linnaeus to animals he considered to have plant-like characteristics, in that they were sessile but produced Hydra-like polyps.

69 Isides (= soft corals, e.g. Isis), Gorgoniae (= sea fans), Tubulariae (= tubularians and hydroids), Flustrae (= leafy bryozoans), Corallinae (= corals), Sertulariae (= bryozoans).

70 ‘Venus sea fan’, or Gorgonia flabellum, is a colonial soft coral. Alcyonium is a genus of branched soft coral, including dead man's fingers, Alcyonium digitatum. ‘Arboreo’ is translated as ‘branched’ but these corals are often quite small. Isis hippuris is another branched species of soft coral found in the Western Pacific Ocean.

71 Job Baster (1711–1775), a Dutch biologist, maintained that corals were plants, but this was hotly and successfully disputed by John Ellis. Baster had cited Linnaeus in support of this contention (Groner and Cornelius, op. cit. (65). p. 48), perhaps because in an earlier Linnaean dissertation Sertularia, a bryozoan, had been classified as a moss (R. Martin, Dissertatio botanica, qua plantae Martino-Burserianae explicantur, thesis, University of Upsala, Upsala, 1745 (C. Linnaeus as praeses)). However, by 1757, Linnaeus had realized (in another dissertation, J.H. Hager, Natura pelagi, thesis, University of Upsala, Upsala: Hojer, 1757 (C. Linnaeus as praeses)) that Sertularia had animal polyps, and Ellis was cited in support of this.

72 It was generally considered that an organism was ‘animal’ if it moved and could react actively to the environment, whereas it was ‘vegetable’ or a plant if it was fixed to one spot and ‘insensitive’ to touch. The fact that many organisms had both features created a conundrum. To say Linnaeus settled the matter is an exaggeration. In the 10th edition of Systema naturae he simply created a name (the class Zoophyta) still implying their dual nature. That they were animals was established by Ellis, who convinced Linnaeus in correspondence that started in 1757.

73 The ‘true Theory’ being that zoophytes were animals.

74 Tapeworms (Taenia in the Latin original) are parasites of humans and livestock, and they were the subject of an early Linnaean dissertation (G. Dubois, Specimen academicum de Taenia, thesis, University of Upsala, Upsala, 1748 (C. Linnaeus as praeses).

75 Linnaeus believed that all organisms had a fundamental ‘medullary’ and ‘cortical structure’. For a thorough analysis of this idea see Stevens and Cullen, op. cit. (47).

76 We translate chylopoeis as digestive system. Chyle is an intestinal fluid.

77 Triticum repens is couch grass (now named Elytrigia or Agropyron repens), a persistent weed that spreads by below-ground runners which are actually stems, not roots.

78 The tapeworm does indeed have a head-like structure (termed a scolex) at the thinner end. The scolex is furnished with suckers for attachment to the intestine but it has no eyes or mouth. In the dissertation of Dubois (op. cit. (74)) on Taenia it is stated that the mouth is ‘marginal, solitary’. There is a pore on each of the segments of the tapeworm, but it is a urinogenital opening; there is no true mouth, as nutrients are absorbed through the surface of the animal.

79 Mushroom coral (Madrepora Fungites in the Latin original) is Fungia fungites, within the family Fungidae (no relationship to the fungi) in the class Anthozoa, to which also belong hydra and other corals.

80 The body of the coral.

81 ‘Fire corals’ are colonial marine organisms (in the genus Millepora) that are technically not corals, but related to jellyfish and other stinging anemones, hence their name.

82 ‘Nautilus’ is the common name of pelagic marine molluscs of the cephalopod family Nautilidae. Having remained relatively unchanged for millions of years, they are often considered living fossils. Nautilidae, both extant and extinct, have shells that are generally smooth, with compressed whorls. The species of Nautilus listed here were recognized by Linnaeus in his Systema naturae, 12th edn, 1767 (p. 1162, under Vermes, Testacea, Nautilus: genus number 318), published in the same year that Roos published his dissertation. In the 10th edition, published in 1758, and certainly accessible to Roos, there is no mention of ‘rugosus’. This sentence is not present in the original dissertation by Roos and replaces the sentence that was moved to p. 389 (see note 60 above). Exactly why Linnaeus thought it fit to insert this sentence in the Amoenitates version and to include the many species of Nautilus remains unclear.

83 In an earlier dissertation (Wilcke, op. cit. (21)), Linnaeus considered that insects often acted as nature's police, preventing the excessive reproduction and spread of other species in order to keep the balance of nature.

84 Aphis are small sap-sucking insects, also known as greenflies, in the family Aphidae, order Homoptera. ‘Chermes’ refers to species in the families Adelgidae and Psyllidae. ‘Chermes’ is derived from the Arabic word for crimson, and refers to the bright red color used for dyeing that some species exude when crushed. ‘Coccus’ are scale insects in the family Coccidae. ‘Thrips’ are tiny, slender insects with fringed wings in the order Thysanoptera. Podura is a genus of stout-bodied springtails. ‘Acarus’ here probably refers to mites in general. The flour mite, Acarus siro, is a pest of stored grains.

85 Phalaena was a name used by Linnaeus to include most moths.

86 We have translated seta as hair. In botany, seta refers to the stalk supporting the capsule of a moss or liverwort, but here it probably is used to mean a hair in a general sense.

87 ‘Armed eyes’: with a lens or microscope.

88 This refers to the work of Trembley (1710–1784); see p. 390.

89 Otto von Münchhausen (1716–1774). The biographers of Ellis (Groner and Cornelius, op. cit. (65)) confuse him with Hieronymus Karl Friedrich von Münchhausen (1720–1797), famous for his largely fictional stories of wartime exploits, further elaborated by Rudolf Erich Raspe (1736–1794) and subsequent writers, and after whom the medical condition Münchhausen syndrome was named. Groner and Cornelius suggest (p. 117) that the letters from Baron Münchhausen to Linnaeus were a hoax, when in fact the rich correspondence between Linnaeus and Otto von Münchhausen continued from 1751 to 1773. A further confusion is with Gerlach Adolf von Münchhausen (1688–1770), chancellor of Gottingen ( Ambrose, C.T., ‘Carolus Linnaeus (Carl von Linné), 1707–1778: the Swede who named almost everything’, The Pharos (Spring 2010), pp. 5–10 Google ScholarPubMed).

90 Louis Joblot (1645–1723). Hofer (spelled ‘Hofwer’ in the original dissertation) is probably Johannes Hofer (1669–1752), who coined the term nostalgia for ‘homesickness’, noting its occurrence in Swiss mercenaries pining for their mountain landscapes. Robert Hooke (1635–1703); Antoni van Leeuwenhoek (1632–1723). We have been unable to identify Grindell; he is not in the Linnaean correspondence. The Swedish translation by Fries, op. cit. (27), also does not identify Grindell. Johann Christian Cuno (1708–1783); George Adams (1720–1773); John Turberville Needham (1713–1781); John Walker (1731–1803); John Hill (1716–1775); Jacob Christian Schäffer (1718–1790).

91 O. von Münchhausen, Der Hausvater, 2nd edn, Hanover: Förster, 1766. The publication history of Der Hausvater is too complicated to explain here. The first volume appeared in 1764 (under the title Des Hausvaters) and the last and sixth in 1773. Why they were published anonymously is unclear, but their authorship seems to have been common knowledge.

92 Smut of barley. However, in the letter that is alluded to (Münchhausen to Linnaeus, 9 December 1751, Linnaean Correspondence, L1351), the type of cereal on which smut occurs is not specified.

93 Mucor is a bread mould, but here it may refer to filamentous fungi in general.

94 Linnaeus, in the 12th edition of the Systema Naturae (1767), created the genus Chaos (class Vermes, order Zoophyta), in which he included the fungi (Chaos fungorum), the smut fungi (Chaos ustilago), and the infusoria (Chaos infusorium). Although Chaos has the classification level of a genus, numerous taxa that would have been recognized as distinct by Linnaeus are included under each of the ‘species’ epithets. For example, under C. fungorum are listed ‘Lycoperdi, Agarici, Boleti, Mucoris’ (puff balls, mushrooms, boletes and mucor). Under Chaos obscurae are included the fevers, syphilis, sperm, ethers and rotting ferments.

95 The expert priests are those who are allowed into the chamber of mysteries.

96 This section (up to note 100, page 397) is a Latin translation of the German from O. von Münchhausen, Der Hausvater, vol. 1, Part 1, 2nd edn, Hannover: N. Försters and Sons, 1776, pp. 149–151, paragraph 76. In Roos's dissertation this section is in smaller font, while in the Amoenitates it is in the same font as the rest of the text.

97 This is correct for stinking smut or bunt (Tilletia caries) of wheat (Lowther, op. cit. (24); Fischer and Holton, op. cit. (24)).

98 In fungi, hyphae grow up the stem. In the seed gall, the nematodes are released into the soil, enter the roots of the seedling, and move to the growing tips. Bird, A.F., ‘The Anguina–Corynebacterium association’, in Zuckerman, B. (ed.), Plant Parasitic Nematodes, vol. 3, New York: Academic Press, 1981, pp. 303–323 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

99 This was first shown experimentally by Tillet (1714–1791) in a dissertation which won first prize from the Academy of Sciences of Bordeaux ( Tillet, M., Dissertation sur la cause qui corrompt et noircit les grains de bled dans les épis; et sur les moyens de prevenir ces accidens, Bordeaux: Pierre Brun, 1755 Google Scholar, trans. Humphrey, H.B., Phytopathological Classics No. 5, Ithaca, NY: American Phytopathological Society, 1937 Google Scholar).

100 This paragraph is a Latin translation from O. von Münchhausen, Der Hausvater, vol 2, Part 1, 2nd edn, Hanover: N. Försters and Sons, 1766, p. 751, paragraph 758, in a section where he reviews works on fungi that are in his library.

101 This may refer to a bracket fungus, Fomes fomentarius, the tinder polypore, in the family Polyporaceae.

102 This refers to p. 703, paragraph 634 of Münchhausen's Der Hausvater, op. cit. (91), where Münchhausen says, ‘if I am not mistaken, there is not one chemist who knows what fermentation means’ (translated from the German), and then gives an example of a rather excruciating attempt by one author to define what it is. Louis Pasteur, early in his career, confirmed that fermentation was caused by living organisms, and this presaged his experiments that refuted spontaneous generation, so Münchhausen's same insight is very noteworthy.

103 This abbreviation ‘Munckh’ for Münchhausen was not in the original dissertation, and was probably inserted by Linnaeus to emphasize that the quote is ending, especially as the format was not in smaller type, as in the original dissertation.

104 Michael Servetus (Miguel Serveto Conesa) (1509 or 1511–1553); Hieronymus Fabricius ab Aquapendente or Girolamo Fabrizio (1537–1619); Andrea Cesalpino (1524 or 1525–1603).

105 William Harvey (1578–1657).

106 Triticum is wheat. Hordeum is barley. Scorzonera is a genus of flowering plants in the aster family, Asteraceae, including the edible black salsify (Scorzonera hispanica). The smut on this species is Ustilago (= Microbotryum) scorzonerae ( Vanky, K., European Smut Fungi, Stuttgart: Gustav Fischer, 1994 Google Scholar). Tragopogon pratensis (goatsbeard, salsify and jack-go-to-bed-at-noon) is a biennial plant in the Asteraceae, common in fields and on roadsides. The smut on this species is Ustilago (= Microbotryum) tragopogon-pratensis (Vanky, op. cit.).

107 Unfortunately, we are not told from which species of diseased plant the ‘dust’ came. See note 33.

108 The Cuff microscope was at that time the most advanced binocular instrument available. Its history and use by Linnaeus have been described by Nyman and Nilsson, op. cit. (25). Using the actual microscope borrowed by Linnaeus, they observed the germination of spores of Ustilago hordei, loose smut of barley, in various natural, but not sterile, water sources. They also saw ‘infusorians’, but did not determine the species they observed.

109 Muraenae, or moray eels, are large fish in the family Muraenidae. Gordii are Gordian worms, also known as horsehair worms, in the phylum Nematomorpha. Adult worms are parasitic on insects and crustaceans. They are named after the legendary Gordian knot.

110 Liberally translated from hariolor: to foretell, prophesy; to speak foolishly.

111 Volvox is a colonial green alga, where several hundred cells form a hollow ball. Each cell has two flagellae, and their co-ordinated action moves the colony in a rotary fashion.

112 ‘Beroe’ refers to comb jellies that move by plates of fused cilia (phylum Ctenophora).

113 Lycoperdus refers to puffball mushrooms in the genus Lycoperdon.

114 Literally ‘bodies with the size of a head’. In the present context this possibly means a spore-bearing capsule or mushroom.

115 Boletes (many in the genus Boletus) are mushrooms characterized by the spores being formed not on gill-like lamellae (as in the common mushroom) but in tubes under the cap; this gives the underside of the cap the appearance of being covered with pores or small holes.

116 Peziza lentifera almost certainly refers to a species of bird's nest fungi, perhaps Crucibulum vulgare. Bird's nest fungi are closely related to the mushrooms (phylum Basidiomycota), and are so called because they produce egg-like, lentil-shaped structures inside cup-shaped fruiting bodies. The egg-like structures carry spores inside them that germinate to produce hyphae that penetrate rotting wood ( Ramsbottom, J., Mushrooms and Toadstools, London: Collins, 1953 Google Scholar). Nowadays, the generic name Peziza is applied to the cup fungi which do not produce egg-like structures, and which are in a different phylum, the Ascomycota.

117 These are spore bearing structures called ‘peridioles’ produced in a cup-like fruiting body, and technically not seeds. The peridioles are splash-dispersed over several feet by rain drops.

118 Referring to Linnaeus.

119 It is unclear which disease of lemon (Citro in the original Latin) is being referred to here; many fungal diseases of lemons destroy the whole fruit.

120 These probably include, or are synonymous with, the dry-rot fungus, Merulius lacrymans. The Byssum may refer to ‘thread’ or ‘silk’, reflecting the white fungal threads (hyphae) on the surface of the wood, or the invasive strings (rhizomorphs) formed of numerous hyphae adhering side by side. ‘Unctuous’ (unctuoso in the Latin original) possibly refers to the superficially ‘oily’ nature of drops that are formed on the orange brown fruiting body of Merulius lacrymans, hence also the species name.

121 Erysiphe refers to fungal plant pathogens which cause powdery mildew.

122 Ros melleus is honeydew and is formed from drops of sugary liquid discharged by aphids feeding on plants. It forms a substrate for fungal growth and quickly turns mouldy.

123 Galeopsis, commonly called hemp-nettle, is a genus of annual herbaceous plants native to Europe and Asia. Lithospermum tinctorium, or dyer's alkanet, is so named because of its purple-staining roots. Its current name is Alkanna tinctoria ( Jarvis, C., Order out of Chaos: Linnean Plant Names and Their Types, London: Linnean Society of London and Natural History Museum, 2007 Google Scholar; Meikle, R.D., ‘Alkanna tinctoria: a nomenclatural tangle’, Kew Bulletin (1980) 34, pp. 821–824 CrossRefGoogle Scholar).

124 Diseases accompanied by skin eruption or a rash, such as measles, scarlet fever, or smallpox.

125 Radicis in the Latin original is interpreted as meaning the whole plant.

126 Sperm.

127 Unclear if the intended meaning of ‘other eyes’ is other people or other microscopes.

128 Syphilis can cause absence of sperm or presence of dead sperm (F.R. Sturgis, Sexual Debility in Man, New York: Paraphilias, 1900).

129 Marcello Malpighi (1628–1694). The term ‘keel’ was used by Malpighi and others to denote the first rudiments of the spinal column in a chicken's embryo, because it is bent in the form of the keel of a ship.

130 The issue of the role of pollen in fertilization remained controversial well into the early eighteenth century ( Farley, J., Gametes and Spores: Ideas about Sexual Reproduction 1750–1914, Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1982 Google Scholar).

131 The stigma is the receptive surface of the style, which is a columnar structure connecting the stigma to the ovary.

132 Mirabilis is a genus of plants in the family Nyctaginaceae known as the four o'clock plants because their flowers open late in the afternoon.

133 Here we translate fovilla as ‘pollen tube’, but Linnaeus may have simply meant the substance contained in the pollen grains.

134 Antonio Turra (1730–1796).

135 An ell (Latin cognate ulna) is a unit of measurement, originally a cubit, approximating the length of a man's arm from the elbow to the tip of the middle finger.

136 Angiuillae are roundworms or nematodes, which swim like eels.

137 Many roundworms do have live births.

138 The meaning of ‘gluten’ here is unclear and we have left the word as such: it could mean animal glue derived from boiling animal connective tissue. It could also mean dough, or damp flour, but the Oxford English Dictionary indicates that the usage of gluten in this context did not occur till after 1800.

139 Amoeba.

140 Translation of corculum is not obvious. One meaning is ‘little heart’, and it probably refers to larvae of insects infesting wheat grains.

141 This paragraph was added by Linnaeus in the Amoenitates version.

142 Microscopists.

143 See note 75 above.

144 We have translated geodaetes naturae as ‘the whole sweep of nature’ but its exact meaning is unclear. Geodetics is the surveying or the study of surface features.

145 ‘Progallica insects’ (insecta Progallica in the Latin original) may refer to Réaumur's large work on the insects of France ( de Réaumur, R.A.F., Mémoires pour servir à l'histoire des insectes, Paris: Académie royale des sciences, 1734–1742Google Scholar).

146 ‘Ilex coccifera’ refers to scale insects in the genus Kermes, in the order Hemiptera. They feed on the sap of evergreen oaks; the females produce a red dye, also called ‘kermes’, that is the source of red cochineal or natural crimson. The food plant of the Kermes scale insect, the kermes oak (Quercus coccifera), has holly-like leaves, hence its name Ilex, which is the modern name for the genus to which holly belongs.

147 Holly also has red berries, and therefore the red berry-like females of Kermes may have been thought to be part of the plant.

148 This sentence was added in the Amoenitates version.

149 Echinops, or globe thistle, is a genus of flowering plants with spiny foliage in the sunflower family, Asteraceae. Gundelia is a genus of spiny, thistle-like plants also in the Asteraceae found in the Middle East. As these plants dry in the summer, they detach from the root and become tumbleweeds blown around by the wind. The original dissertation had Echinopsis seu Gundeliae; in the Amoenitates version an ‘s’ has been substituted for ‘seu’. Morina is a genus with thistle-like leaves in the Morinaceae, found in the Himalayas and Pakistan.

150 Amaryllis is a small genus of flowering bulbs; the common name ‘amaryllis’ is now mainly used for the genus Hippeastrum, widely sold for their large lily-like flowers. ‘Gloriosa’, commonly known as gloriosa or flame lily, is in the family Colchicaceae. ‘Leonurus’, or motherwort, is a herbaceous perennial in the mint family, Lamiaceae, and formerly used as a relaxant during pregnancy and labor, hence its common name.

151 This sentence has been difficult to translate as the intended meaning is unclear. Literally translated, it is ‘so that it seemed that nature's sanctuary was being entered when uncovering this anticipated idea, transformed through a kind of pre-impregnation [or pre-payment]’. We have used the word ‘basic pattern’ for prolepsis (see note 47 above), and used ‘pre-determination’ for per praenumerationem (literally ‘pre-numeration’). The metaphor might be derived from entering the sanctuary of Apollo, where an advance payment or sacrifice was needed for a prophecy. In this Amoenitates version, the phrase per praenumerationem has replaced per antipraegnationem in the original dissertation, suggesting that the terminology and meaning were problematic even for Linnaeus. In modern terms, Linnaeus may be striving to say that there seems to be a ‘fundamental plan’ that has to be modified by a ‘developmental switch’ that may be ‘costly’ to effect. A modern biologist would be quite comfortable with the statement ‘that an inborn pattern or genetic code (prolepsis) requires a particular developmental pathway or switch (praenumerationis/antipraegnationis) for its expression’, even though this is almost as metaphorical as Linnaeus's version. We thank John Kuhner for discussions of this point.

152 Presumably Linnaeus. This view of fermentation comes from Münchhausen (see note 102 above), who suggested that fermentation was caused by living organisms.

153 Literally ‘conceived of in thought’.

154 The word pulvillus in the original Latin is the dimunitive of pulvinus and means ‘little cushion’. We have translated it as the diminutive of pulvis (pulvisculum) meaning ‘little dust particle’.

155 See note 120 above.

156 ‘Seminal animalcules’ (seminalia animalia in Latin original) probably refers to the animals thought to be produced by the seed or spores of fungi.

157 ‘Termites’ refers to destructive insects in the order Isoptera superficially resembling but unrelated to ants.

158 This refers to the Wisdom of Sirach, and also known as The Book Ecclesiasticus or Siracides. It is a work of ethical teachings from the early second century BC written by the Jewish scribe Shimon ben Yeshua ben Eliezer ben Sira of Jerusalem. The quote is from 43:36.

159 Intermittent fevers are forms of malaria caused by three different species of the malaria parasite, protozoans in the genus Plasmodium. P. falciparum causes fevers every other day (sub-tertian or semi-tertian) and is the most serious, P. vivax causes fevers every third day (tertian), while P. malariae causes fever every fourth day (quartan). Malaria was also known as the ‘ague’. Exacerbating fevers are fevers that are continuous, often increasing, in their early stages and may include various bacterial and viral diseases, including typhoid fever caused by the bacterium Salmonella enterica, or typhus caused by bacteria in the genus Rickettsia and transmitted by lice, as well as a wide variety of viral diseases such as influenza and pneumonia.

160 See previous note.

161 ‘Petechiae’ are red or purple spots appearing on the skin, and may have a wide variety of causes. In the past this symptom was often indicative of scarlet fever, caused by the bacterium Salmonella pyogenes (also known as Group A Streptococcus).

162 Tuberculosis.

163 ‘Febris hectica’ is hard to translate into a modern equivalent, but presumably refers to a fever where the body temperature fluctuates strongly.

164 The Amoenitates version is different from the original dissertation, and was changed from ‘Dies omnio venturus haec & longe plura, quam conjectare possimus, in lucem protrahet clarissimam’ to ‘Dies & longioris aevi diligentia haec & plura in lucem protrahet’. Why is unclear, but Linnaeus may have recognized that omnio doesn't make sense, and likely should be omnis. A literal translation of the original would be, ‘Every day that will come, will bring these and far more than we could guess, into the clearest light’, which does not differ in meaning or intention from that in the Amoenitates version.

165 Scholia are critical or explanatory comments.

166 The meaning of ‘shivering’ fevers is unclear. See also note 163.

167 The ‘reverse order’ would be metamorphosis of animals into plants; see pp. 404– 405, especially the last sentence on p. 404 inserted into the Amoenitates by Linnaeus.

168 This question has been added into the Amoenitates version by Linnaeus. It may be the result of his correspondence with Ellis, who could find no evidence that fungal spores produced animalcules. Antonovics and Hood, op. cit. (26).

169 See notes 47 and 75.

170 Perhaps meaning ‘organized’ or ‘differentiated’.