Obituary :—Sir J. E. Smith. 393 



freight, was 1029/. The duty was remitted on application to the 

 Treasury. The ship which was conveying this precious treasure had 

 just sailed, when the King of Sweden (Gustavus III.), who had been 

 absent in France, returned, and hearing the story, sent a vessel in 

 pursuit, but happily it was too late. 



The collection consists of every thing possessed by the great Lin- 

 naeus and his son relating to natural history and medicine. The 

 Library contains about 2500 volumes. The old herbarium of the 

 father comprehends all the plants described in the Species Plantarum, 

 except perhaps about 500 species (Fungi and Palmce excepted), and 

 it had then perhaps more than 500 undescribed. 



The herbarium of young Linnaeus appears to have had more atten- 

 tion bestowed upon it, and is on better paper. It consists of most 

 of the plants of his Supplementum, except what are in his father's 

 herbarium, and has besides about 1500 very fine specimens from 

 Commerson's collection, from Dombey, La Marc, Pourrett, Gouan, 

 JSmeathman, Masson, &c, and a prodigious quantity from Sir Joseph 

 Banks, who gave him duplicates of almost every one of Aublett's spe- 

 cimens, as well as of his own West Indian plants, with a few of those 

 collected in his own voyages round the world. 



The insects are not so numerous j but they consist of most of those 

 that are described by Linnaeus, and many new ones. The shells are 

 about thrice as many as are mentioned in the Systema Nature?, and 

 many of them very valuable. The fossils are also numerous, but 

 mostly bad specimens and in bad condition. 



The number of the MSS. is very great. All his own works are in- 

 terleaved with abundance of notes, especially the Systema Natures, 

 Species Plantarum, Materia Medica, Philosophia Botanica, Clavis 

 Medicines, he. There are also the Iter Lapponicum (which was after- 

 wards published), Iter Dalecarlicum, and a Diary of the Life of Lin- 

 naeus for about thirty years of his life. The letters to Linnaeus, (from 

 which a selection was also published by the President,) are about 

 three thousand. 



This splendid acquisition at once determined the bent of the pro- 

 prietor's studies. He considered himself, as he has declared, a trustee 

 only for the public, and for the purpose of making the collection 

 useful to the world and to natural history in general. How well he 

 has fulfilled this trust will appear from the sequel. He had no sooner 

 obtained quiet possession than he began to fulfill his engagement, 

 for we find him in the year 1785 making his first appearance as an 

 author, by translating the Preface to the Museum Regis Adolphi Fri- 

 derici of Linnaeus, being succinct and admirable reflections on the 

 study of nature. 



In the year 1 786 he prepared himself for an extensive tour on the 

 Continent j in which his chief object was to examine into the state of 

 natural history in the different cities and towns he might pass through, 

 not neglecting the incidents, especially the fine arts, which usually 

 engage the attention of travellers. At Leyden he graduated in me- 

 dicine j but it does not appear that he tarried there a longer time 

 than was necessary for this purpose. On this occasion he published 



New Series. Vol. 3. No. 17. 21% 1828. 3 E his 



