46 CAROLUS LINN&US 



Ceylonese botany. Linnaeus was invited to 

 take up his abode with Burmann for the period 

 of his sojourn in Amsterdam, and he accepted 

 the bidding. He had been there about two 

 months when he received a call from one of 

 the merchant princes of Amsterdam, George 

 Cliffort. He was a gentleman of culture as 

 well as of great wealth, and had a very noble 

 garden and conservatories abounding in rare 

 plants from the Indies and other remote 

 places. But his errand with Linnaeus was 

 not botanical. He was something of an 

 invalid and melancholy. His regular physi- 

 cian was Boerhaave, at Leyden. On a late 

 visit to him, Boerhaave had advised him that 

 his ailments were chiefly resultant from his 

 princely ways of living; that he could not do 

 better than employ the services of a brilliant 

 young Swedish physician, a specialist in 

 dietetics, at present the guest of Professor 

 Burmann. He advised him to take Doctor 

 Linnaeus for body physician into his own 

 house, and place himself under his direction 

 as to diet. This was Cliffort's motive in 

 calling upon Linnaeus. The outcome of it 

 was an agreement between them; and the 

 young physician botanist was soon quite 

 luxuriously domiciled with Cliffort, and under 



