LINNJBUS. 



307 



SECTION IX. 



Decline and Death of Linnceus. 



Review of the Medical Writings of Linnaeus — His Materia Medical 

 S3\stem of Nosology, Theory of Medicine — His last Work, a 

 Continuation of the Mantissa, published in 1771 — Declining 

 State of his Health — In 1774, has an Attack of Apoplexy, fol- 

 lowed by Prostration of his Intellectual Powers — Another Attack 

 in 177t>) from the Effects of which, and Tertian Fever, he never 

 recovers — His Death in 1778 — Honours paid to his Memory. 



Hitherto we have considered Linnseus principally 

 as a naturalist ; but his merits in another department 

 of science were such as to entitle him to rank among 

 its more eminent cultivators. It will be recollected^ 

 that he practised medicine with success at Stock- 

 holm ; that he was appointed physician to the Ad- 

 miralty ; that on the resignation of Roberg he ob- 

 tained the professorship of anatomy, which in the 

 following year he exchanged with Rosen, and 

 became, with the consent of the chancellor of the 

 university^ professor of botany. As the latter chair^ 

 however, was essentially a medical one, he was 

 bound to direct his attention to the sanative powers 

 of plants, as well as to their uses as articles of 

 food, and was moreover obliged to deliver lectures 

 on materia medica and dietetics. He may even 

 be said to have been the founder of the first-men- 

 tioned of these branches of medical science. As 

 a text-book for his lectures, he published an ac- 



