X PEOCEEDINGS OF THE 



iieau Society to the happy enthusiasm of a youthful naturalist, 

 who with a love of Natural History amounting to a passion, and 

 with a rare devotion of the mind to one great and absorbing object, 

 determined to effect the acquisition of a priceless treasure in the 

 collections I have alluded to, and which are now happily secured 

 within these walls, and occupy the place of honour in a room well- 

 wortliy of their reception, — our new and splendid library. 



You are all doubtless well-aware of many of the circumstances 

 connected with this remarkable result of combined resolution, 

 enthusiasm and tact ; but I shall be pardoned a moment's refer- 

 ence to that event as highly interesting in itself, and as the point 

 upon which, as I before observed, the institution of the Linnean 

 Society undoubtedly turned. 



It was then at the close of the year 1783, when James Edward 

 Smith, still a student of medicine, was exactly twenty-four years of 

 age, and shortly after the death of the younger Linnaeus, that our 

 founder happened to be breakfasting with Sir Joseph Banks, then 

 President of the Royal Society, who informed him that he had re- 

 ceived from Dr. Acrel, the Professor of Medicine at Upsal, the offer 

 of the whole of the collections and library of the great Linnaeus 

 and of his son, — the Books, MSS., and Natural History, — for the 

 sum of 1000 guineas. Sir Joseph stated that he should decline 

 the offer, but strongly recommended his young friend to become 

 the purchaser. In pursuance of this advice, which met a ready 

 response in his own ardent inclination, he immediately entered 

 into negotiations for that object ; and after some correspondence 

 with his father, which does equal credit to the filial duty of the 

 son, and to the fond affection combined with careful prudence of 

 the parent, these negotiations w^ere closed by the acceptance of 

 the sum of 900 guineas. It was not, however, without many risks 

 that the possession of this treasure was obtained, and nothing but 

 the straightforward promptness of the young aspirant could have 

 availed to secure it. Besides other intended advances towards its 

 acquisition. Dr. Sibthorp relates in a letter to his more successful 

 competitor, that after the close of the actual contract, he had, in 

 ignorance of that fact, offered the full sum of 1000 guineas ; and 

 we gather from various parts of the correspondence which took place 

 upon this occasion, that even before the collections had arrived in 

 this country. Dr. Smith had received numerous overtures for the 

 piu^chase of the whole or portions of them, all of which he happily 

 declined. But the most remarkable event by which its acquisition 

 was jeopardized, was the attempt made by the king of Sweden 



