All scientific advancement shows epochs of great progress.
In the early seventeenth century the Swedish student Linnaeus studies the flora of the world, which was then largely unclassified, and through his prodigious endeavors he classified the vegetable kingdom as far as then known, and laid down a system of classification which would be applicable to further discoveries. This placed the study of botany on a scientific basis. In 1817 and 1818 Cuvier studied the animal kingdom, the knowledge of that kingdom being at that time disjointed and unclassified. Into these four great families all animal life can be classified. A contemporary of Cuvier was Samuel Hahnemann.