52 NATURAL HISTORY. 



pastor of Rashult, and Linnaeus himself was educated 

 with the intention of entering the ministry ; but the strong 

 taste which he early manifested for botanical and other 

 scientific pursuits led to his ultimately entering upon the 

 study of medicine in preference to that of divinity. In 

 pursuance of this end, Linnaeus became a student in the 

 university of Lund in 1727, being greatly assisted in his 

 scientific studies by Stobaeus, the professor of medicine 

 and botany, in whose house he lived. Being, however, 

 strongly attracted to the university of Upsala by the 

 superior facilities which it offered for the study of the 

 natural sciences, Linnaeus abruptly left his friend and 

 patron Stobaeus, and betook himself to the more famous 

 seat of learning. Here he found himself reduced to great 

 straits by reason of poverty, and it was only after a year or 

 more passed in extreme indigence, that he was relieved 

 from this condition through the kindness of Professor 

 Celsius, who received him as a guest into his house. He 

 now ardently prosecuted his studies in botany and 

 zoology, and was shortly afterwards appointed assistant to 

 Rudbeck, the professor of botany in the university. It 

 was at this time also that he made the acquaintance of 

 Peter Artedi,* a fellow-student and kindred spirit; and 

 the intimacy thus commenced lasted till the death of the 

 latter in 1735. 



In the year 1732, Linnaeus was selected by the Royal 

 Academy of Upsala as a properly qualified person to 



*Artedi devoted himself particularly to the study of fishes, and is best known 

 at the present day by his famous ' Ichthyologia,' which was edited and published by 

 Linnseus in 1738, three years after the death of Artedi. In the close friendship 

 which subsisted between Linnajus and Artedi, and in the services which the 

 former rendered to the latter as scientific executor, there is much to remind us of 

 the relations which existed between Ray and Willughby. 



