148 THROUGH THE FIELDS WITH LINNAEUS 



veller does not perceive this ; it peems as if the bill of 

 fare in Scandinavia were limited to fish and eggs, 

 cream and cheese. I admit there are many varieties of 

 cheese. 



' Scurvy,' he says, ' is very common in Sweden ; but 

 the Laplanders, who eat no salted food, are entirely 

 free from scurvy. Consequently,' he goes on, < nowhere 

 will the dietetic philosopher have more opportunity of 

 making his experiments, as each province has its own 

 ways of dieting itself. Why is the Norlander infected 

 with the scurvy, while the Laplander is free from it ? 

 Yet the Laplander is subject to the terrible gripes called 

 by them ullem. Why do almost all the males of Orsobrea 

 (Orsa ?) die of consumption before the age of thirty ? 

 Why is the Gothlander chiefly afflicted with the hypo- 

 chondriacal colic ? Why so many epileptics in Verns ? ! 

 One could scarcely travel a day in any of our provinces 

 without learning something of use in ceconomy.' 



Linnaeus travelled in the character of a wide ob- 

 server ; taking, as Bacon did, the whole realm of know- 

 ledge for his province. The patriarchs of learning, 

 looming through the mist of distance, always appear 

 great men as they are and gigantic in their views ; 

 we moderns are subdivided into specialists, dealing with 

 minute parts, as is necessarily the case when we have 

 attained the point requiring high finish. The composi- 

 tion and general breadth of effect being well laid, the 



1 Elsewhere he considers, reasonably enough, the Upsal re- 

 mittent fever to be due to the stagnant canals and wateis. 



