Juke 21, 1907] 



SCIENCE 



955 



neyed to Lubek and Hamburg, and later to 

 Holland, where, in June, he received from 

 the University of Harderwyk the degree of 

 doctor of medicine. At Leyden he became 

 acquainted with the leading men of science 

 of that city, which soon led to his engage- 

 ment by Dr. George Cliffort, a wealthy 

 burgomaster of Amsterdam, to take charge, 

 at a liberal salary, of his extensive museum 

 and botanic garden. Later he was sent by 

 him to England to secure rare plants for 

 his garden, with a letter of introduction 

 from the great Boerhave to Sir Hans 

 Sloane. He thus came in contact with the 

 botanists of London, where, however, his 

 reception was not always cordial. 



On his return to Holland he was offered 

 the position of government physician to the 

 Dutch colony in Surinam, which he pru- 

 dently declined, and became an assistant to 

 his friend Van Royen at the botanic garden 

 in Leyden. After a brief visit to Paris, he 

 returned to Stockholm in September, 1738, 

 where he determined to settle as a physi- 

 cian. Notwithstanding his fame abroad 

 and his skill as a botanist, the pecuniary 

 returns from his profession were at first 

 small, but they gradually increased, and, 

 obtaining some government patronage, his 

 marriage to Miss Morseus was celebrated on 

 June 26, 1739. 



He remained only three years in Stock- 

 holm, during which period he helped to 

 found the Royal Academy of Sciences of 

 that city and served as its first president. 

 In 1741, under an order from the govern- 

 ment, he made a journey through Oland 

 and Gothland. In the same year, he was 

 called to the chair of botany at the Uni- 

 versity of Upsala, a position to which he 

 had long aspired and which he filled for 

 thirty years, when impaired health com- 

 pelled him to resign his official duties and 

 to discontinue his literary labors. The 

 University of Upsala, through the fame of 

 Linngeus, became widely renowned as a seat 



of learning, and attracted students from 

 various parts of Europe. During these 

 years of almost uninterrupted activity, 

 most of LinniEus's numerous botanical and 

 other works were published, the material 

 for which reached him in ever-increasing 

 abundance, not only from distant parts of 

 Europe, but from Siberia, China, India, 

 Egj-pt, South Africa and North and South 

 America. 



Academic honors were showered upon 

 him by all the learned societies of Europe ; 

 a gold medal was struck in his honor by the 

 nobles of Sweden, and in 1757 he was cre- 

 ated by King Frederic a Knight of the 

 Polar Star and admitted to hereditary no- 

 bility. Foreign courts made overtures for 

 his presence, and his own country neglected 

 no opportunity to do him honor. His 

 death in 1778, after sis years of invalidism 

 resulting from an attack of apoplexy, was 

 recognized as a national calamity; the Uni- 

 versity of Upsala went into mourning, and 

 the king ordered a medal to be struck in 

 his memory. 



Although cramped by poverty during the 

 earlier part of his career, prosperity did 

 not long withhold her smile ; not only were 

 the nobles of his country his patrons, but 

 he was an especial favorite of both King 

 Frederic and his queen. Through various 

 emoluments showered upon him he was 

 able, later in life, to purchase a large estate 

 and to construct for himself a museum, 

 wherein he gathered the largest collection 

 of botanical treasures that at that time had 

 anywhere been brought together. He was 

 happy in his domestic relations, and lived 

 to see his son succeed to his chair at the 

 University of Upsala. 



Although Linnffius's piiblieations relate 

 mainly to botany and medicine, they cover 

 the whole realm of natural history. His 

 earliest contribution to science is generally 

 considered to be his 'Florula Lapponica,' 

 the first part of which appeared in the 



