SIR CHARLES LINNiEUS. '-■'> 



seriously consider what lie was to do for a livelihood, 

 for "botanists must eat as well as other mortals, and 

 he forthwith turned his attention to medicine and 

 the curing of patients. In this he was not by any 

 means successful at first, for the public were not 

 slow to grasp the fact that even if he were good as 

 a botanist, a botanist was one thing and a doctor 

 another; and so he had many clouded days, and fortune 

 appeared to have deserted him. 



A gentleman in a good position in Stockholm 

 suffered from what had been termed an incurable 

 complaint, but in a fortnight Linnaeus, either by 

 superior skill or one of those fortunate events of life, 

 he was able to cure his patient in a fortnight ; and 

 soon his fame spread in the city, patients became 

 abundant and fees plentiful. One of the ladies in 

 waiting on the Queen of Sweden had a cough, and 

 Linnaeus had been asked to prescribe for this. He 

 made for the lady some lozenges which she could 

 always carry about with her. One day while she was 

 engaged in playing a quiet game of cards with the 

 Queen, the Queen noticed her place something in her 

 mouth, and asked what it was. The Queen had a 

 cough at that particular time and became interested 

 in the remedy. Linnaeus was called in, and cured 

 the Queen almost immediately ; and so this trouble- 

 some cough gave him such a step upwards that he 

 never afterwards looked back. 



With such assured success, the future father-in-law 

 could no longer withhold his consent to the marriage 

 of his daughter with Linnaeus, and they were married 



