2.04 THE HISTORY OF BIOLOGY 



succeeded in procuring patrons there: the dean, Celsius, who was likewise 

 interested in botany, took him into his family and undertook to procure 

 him further advancement. Even as a young student Linnaeus had always 

 shown that capacity which never left him throughout his life, of exciting 

 the admiration and sympathy of those he met who possessed interests simi- 

 lar to his own — a quality based on the keenness with which he himself 

 embraced the work he had made his own. When once he had acquired friends 

 at the University he gained one success after another. Though not yet a 

 graduate, he obtained permission to lecture on botany and he used to attract 

 large audiences. He received a number of grants, and with the aid of public 

 funds he made journeys of exploration to the Lapp district and Dalecarlia, 

 in the course of which he collected material for research consisting not only 

 of natural objects, but also of human customs and habits. During the latter 

 expedition he made the acquaintance of his future wife, daughter of the 

 wealthy town-physician of Falun, Morasus. In order to secure further ad- 

 vancement in the career he had chosen, Linnasus had to obtain the degree of 

 doctor of medicine, but there was no such degree in Sweden at that time. 

 He accordingly made a journey, with the financial support of his future 

 father-in-law, to Holland, where at the small university of Harderwijk, 

 which never attained to a very high standard of scholarship, he took his 

 doctor's degree in a couple of weeks. By that time, however, the money he 

 had brought with him had become exhausted and Linnasus had no other 

 resource than to chance his luck elsewhere. He accordingly went, in company 

 with a fellow-countryman, to Amsterdam and thence to Leyden. There he 

 became acquainted with several scientists and people interested in science, 

 chief of whom was Boerhaave, who treated him with paternal kindness. 

 With the assistance of one or two patrons Linnasus was able to print his 

 most epoch-making work, the Sy sterna ncitura, which he had already begun 

 in Sweden and which brought him immediate fame. He then spent three 

 years visiting the principal centres of learning in Holland, publishing one 

 work after another with marvellous rapidity, supported by patrons and often 

 almost persuaded to settle in Holland for good. He longed to return home, 

 however, and after paying visits to both England and France, he returned to 

 Sweden with a European reputation, but without any very brilliant prospects 

 for the future. He succeeded, though with some difficulty at first, in making 

 a living as a physician in Stockholm, until in 1741 he won the position for 

 which he had striven so long — the professorship of botany at Upsala. 

 During his Stockholm period he had taken part in the founding of the Acad- 

 emy of Science and had been its first principal; at Upsala, from the day of 

 his arrival, he became the foremost member of the University. His time and 

 capacity for work sufficed for everything — for his teaching, which went 

 on summer and winter, before ever-increasing audiences, both of Swedes and 



