LINN^US AND NATURAL HISTORY 123 



Return to Sweden. After an absence of three and one- 

 half years, Linnaeus returned to his native country in 1 738, and 

 soon after vvas married to the young woman who had assisted 

 him and had waited for him so loyally. He settled in Stock- 

 holm and began the practice of medicine. In the period of 

 his absence he had accomplished much : visited Holland, 

 England, and France, formed the acquaintance of many 

 eminent naturalists, obtained his medical degree, published 

 numerous works on botany, and extended his fame over all 

 Europe. In Stockholm, however, he was for a time neglected, 

 and he would have left his native country in disgust had it 

 not been for the dissuasion of his wife. 



Professor in Upsala. In i 741 he was elected professor 

 of anatomy in the University of Upsala, but by a happy stroke 

 was able to exchange that position for the professorship of 

 botany, materia medica, and natural history that had fallen 

 to his former rival, Rosen. Linnaeus was now in his proper 

 element; he had opportunity to lecture on those subjects to 

 which he had been devotedly attached all his life, and he 

 entered upon the work with enthusiasm. 



He attracted numerous students by the power of his per- 

 sonal qualities and the excellence of his lectures. He became 

 the most popular professor in the University of Upsala, and, 

 owing to his drawing power, the attendance at the university 

 was greatly increased. In 1749 he had 140 students devoted 

 to studies in natural history. The number of students at 

 the university had been about 500; " whilst he occupied the 

 chair of botany there it rose to 1,500." A part of this in- 

 crease was due to other causes, but Linnaeus was the greatest 

 single drawing force in the university. He was an eloquent 

 as well as an enthusiastic lecturer, and he aroused great in- 

 terest among his students, and he gave an astonishing impulse 

 to the study of natural history in general, and to botany in par- 

 ticular. Thus Linnaeus, after having passed through great 



