52 MEMOIR OF LINN^US. 



dale and Drottingholm, at easy distance from his own 

 villa, were often the scene of his studies, and served 

 as another recreation from the more severe duties of 

 his professorship. 



It was at this period of his life that he was seized 

 with severe attacks of gout, which prevented his re- 

 pose for many nights at a time, and which he relieved 

 by eating wild strawberries ; these were almost the 

 first symptoms of an approaching decay in his vigor- 

 ous constitution. The excitement of seeing a collec- 

 tion of novelties had a singular effect, and an anecdote 

 is preserved, of his being cured in this way of a severe 

 fit, by the return of a pupil from North America. 

 He was afflicted with a violent fit of the gout, and 

 was obliged to keep his bed almost totally deprived 

 of the use of his limbs. When he heard of the return 

 of Kalm, with a number of new plants and other 

 curiosities, the desire of seeing these treasures, and 

 the delight which he felt when he saw them, was so 

 great as actually to make the gout disappear. 



The family of Linnaeus, consisting of only one son 

 and four daughters, was now grown up. The son, 

 his first-born, of whom so much was expected, in- 

 herited a portion of his father's abilities, but was not 

 spared to bring them to that maturity, which a con- 

 stant study for many years might have enabled him 

 to reach. At the early age of ten, he is said to have 

 been acquainted with most of the plants in the botanic 

 garden, and the highest wishes of his father were, to 



