222 LINNiEUS. 



specting the collections and curiosities which that 

 celebrated city contained. In the museum of John 

 von Spreckelsen was a preparation of great value, 

 presenting the appearance of a serpent with seven 

 heads. It had even been pledged for a loan of 10,000 

 merks, and was in fact considered one of the most 

 remarkable objects in the cabinets of the curious. 

 Linnaeus, however, on minutely inspecting the mon- 

 ster, discovered that the heads consisted of the jaws 

 of a small quadruped covered over with the skin of 

 a serpent. The wonder ceased, Spreckelsen nearly 

 became bankrupt, and the stranger was obliged to 

 leave Hamburg in order to avoid the enmities in 

 which his sagacity had involved him. 



Continuing his journey to Holland, he arrived at 

 Harderwyk at the end of May, and made applica- 

 tion for his degree, which he received on the 24th 

 June. His thesis was on intermittent fevers, one of 

 the principal causes of which he maintained to be 

 water impregnated with argillaceous substances. 

 Though he had now accomplished his chief object, 

 he resolved, before returning to Sweden, to make 

 himself known to some of tlie Dutch literati ; and 

 for this purpose proceeded to Leyden, where he hired 

 a lodging. Here he made the acquaintance of Pro- 

 fessor Royen, Dr Van Swieten, Lieberkuhn, Gro- 

 novius, and several others. 



By the advice and assistance of the last of these 

 scholars, he published his Systema Naturae, in four- 

 teen folio pages. This little work, containing a com- 

 pendious classification of the three kingdoms of na- 

 ture, was very favourably received. Boerhaave, one 

 of the most illustrious physicians that the world has 

 ever seen, was at the same time the most eminent 



