236 



LINNiEUS. 



sional use. This lady being one day at court, and 

 engaged in a card-party, was following his direc- 

 tion, when the queen, Ulrica Eleonora, asked her 

 what it was she from time to time put into her 

 mouth. Upon being informed, her majesty, who was 

 herself troubled with a cough, immediately sent for 

 Linnaeus, who recommended the same medicine^ by 

 which the complaint was removed. 



This fortunate accident completely established 

 his popularity, and he now became the fashionable 

 doctor of the place. About the same period he was 

 elected president of a society instituted by Cap- 

 tain Triewald for the improvement of the national 

 language, — a circumstance which also tended to pro- 

 mote his reputation. He had, moreover, the good 

 luck to become acquainted with the celebrated 

 Count Charles Gustavus Tessin, who being him- 

 self fond of natural history, could not fail to take 

 an interest in one who had undeservedly suffered so 

 much obloquy for his devotion to it. The nobleman 

 asked him if there were any office for which he 

 wished to petition, as the Diet was then sitting. 

 He replied that he wanted nothing ; but his patron 

 having allowed him a day to consider, he consulted 

 his friend Triewald, who advised him to ask the 

 office of lecturer to the School of Mines, which 

 brought about a hundred ducats a-year. The count 

 soon after invited him to dinner, when he informed 

 him that the request had been granted. In a short 

 time the more important office of physician to the 

 Admiralty became vacant, and was procured for him 

 by his Maecenas, who, besides, offered him apart- 

 ments in his house, and frequently admitted him to 

 his table. There he had an opportunity of making 



