C 7 3 



fyftem, and was doubtlefs the foiindation-flone of that 

 adamantine ftrudlure which himfelf afterwards ere£led. 



In the year 1727, at the age of twenty, he went to 

 the univerfity of Lund in the province of Schonen, under 

 the aufpices of his relation Profeflbr Humaerus j but alt 

 his hopes of fupport and patronage vanished upon his 

 arrival there, for he found that his intended proteder 

 was lately dead^ He however found means to attend the 

 lectures of Stobxus the profeiTor of botany and medicine, 

 and by his extraordinary diligence and great judgement 

 fo iiiterefted the profeflbr in his favour, that he com- 

 paffionated his forlorn condition and received him into 

 Ijts houfe. Here he had leifure and opportunity to gra- 

 tify in its fulleft extent his ardour for fcience, a«d hefc 

 for the firft time he faw a well chofen library of works 

 on botany and a good collciElion of natural hiftory, and 

 began to collect and arrange a herbal himfelf. All the 

 powers of his mind and body feem now to have beea 

 concentered in this delightful ftudy. Tlic leifure mo* 

 ments he had in the day time were employed in wander- 

 ing round the country, exploring and colle(3:ing what- 

 ever natural objeds occurred to him, carefully examin- 

 ing and comparing them with the defcripticns of Tour» 

 nefort, and fometimes writing obfervations of his own, 

 and afTorting them according to fyftem of the inafter he 

 ftudied. In one of fhcfe excurfions he had nearly fallen 

 a vidim to the keennefs of his curiofity. The Furia 

 infernalis, a fmall flender worm not uncommon in the 



