52 PEOCEEDINGS OF THE 



Medicine. His attempt to scientifically arrange the different 

 forms of diseases bears, like all his productions, the stamp of hia 

 genius and elevates him over at least the majority of his prede- 

 cessors, and his Materia medica will always he reckoned among 

 the classical works of pharmacology. In medical research he 

 stood in many respects far in advance of his contemporaries, and 

 in more recent times they have fully acknowledged the importance 

 of some views he defended as proved or stated as probable. Here 

 we can refer to questions about the uses of electricity in some 

 diseases, about certain skin-diseases produced by parasitic life, 

 about the nursing of infants, about the harmfulness of intoxi- 

 cating drinks, about general sanitary inspection, and so forth. 

 Nay even the Bacteria, so much discussed in our days, appear 

 in his writings as causes of not only several diseases (" feb- 

 rium exanthematicarum contagium, febrium exacerbantium causa, 

 siphilitidis virus"), but also of all fermentation and putrefaction 

 (" fermenti putredinisque septicum*'). His physical eye had, 

 indeed, never seen a single one of those microscopic organisms ; 

 nevertheless for the development and spreading of these diseases, 

 together with the process of putrefaction, he well thought any 

 other conclusion scarcely possible to arrive at than that they 

 were due to " minute living particles " (" moleculae vivae "). 



AVe have cast a hasty glance over the chief fruits of the exten- 

 sive, deep-reaching life-work of Linnaeus. Natural history was by 

 him rejuvenated and beautified, and no longer can any one with 

 propriety contest his right to occupy a prominent place in the 

 sphere of science. On the contrary, it has become the most 

 renowned ornament of the day, the proclaimed public favourite. 

 The high respect, now so willingly bestowed upon the natural 

 sciences, forming a sharp contrast with the low estimation in 

 which they used often to be held, is owing, in no small degree, 

 to the influence of Linnaeus. 



Great minds stamp their mark upon their time, and it does not 

 seem difficult to discover in the 18th century, especially the latter 

 half, many a genuine Linnaean trait : such as the then awakening 

 of a lively interest for a wider knowledge of the products of 

 nature in different lands. Tn our days, with easier communica- 

 tions, richer material resources, and greater number of scientific 

 men, it is a comparatively easy task to obtain from the most 

 widely separated localities collections of natural objects ; but 

 quite different was the case in the time of Linujcus. Untir- 

 ing was his zeal and unparallelled his power of stimulating persons 

 of the most varied positions in life — mighty monarchs and un- 

 assuming students, rich lords and poor seamen, learned bishops 

 and ignorant tradesmen — all to work to one end. From widely 

 separated tracts of the world continually streamed the gathered up 

 treasures to the little insigtuficant Upsala, to be there scrutinized 

 and described by the master. And what a wonderful scientific life 

 had been conjured up through him alone in his own land ! Around 



