LINNZUS AND NATURAL HISTORY 123 
Return to Sweden.—After an absence of three and one- 
half years, Linnzus returned to hisnative country in 1738, and 
soon after was married to the young woman who had assisted 
him and had waited for him so loyally. He settled in Stock- 
holm and began the practice of medicine. In the period of 
his absence he had accomplished much: visited Holland, 
England, and France, formed the acquaintance of many 
eminent naturalists, obtained his medical degree, published 
numerous works on botany, and extended his fame over all 
Europe. In Stockholm, however, he was fora time neglected, 
and he would have left his native country in disgust had it 
not been for the dissuasion of his wife. 
Professor in Upsala.—In 1741 he was elected professor 
of anatomy in the University of Upsala, but by a happy stroke 
was able to exchange that position for the professorship of 
botany, materia medica, and natural history that had fallen 
to his former rival, Rosen. Linneus was now in his proper 
element; he had opportunity to lecture on those subjects to 
which he had been devotedly attached all his life, and he 
entered upon the work with enthusiasm. 
He attracted numerous students by the power of his per- 
sonal qualities and the excellence of his lectures. He became 
the most popular professor in the University of Upsala, and, 
owing to his drawing power, the attendance at the university 
was greatly increased. In 1749 he had 140 students devoted 
to studies in natural history. The number of students at 
the university had been about 500; “whilst he occupied the 
chair of botany there it rose to 1,500.” A part of this in- 
crease was due to other causes, but Linneus was the greatest 
single drawing force in the university. He was an eloquent 
as well as an enthusiastic lecturer, and he aroused great in- 
terest among his students, and he gave an astonishing impulse 
to the study of natural history in general, and to botany in par- 
ticular. Thus Linneus, after having passed through great 
