21 



lodged. Linnaeus, who only heard, from a fellow-country- 

 man, of the sudden and deplorable event, which had 

 deprived him of his best friend, two days after its oc- 

 currence, hurried to Amsterdam as early as possible, 

 but found all provision made at the charge of Seba, who, 

 as LiNNiEus says, 'very liberally' allotted a sum of 50 

 florins towards the burial expenses. It is a little diffi- 

 cult for us to understand wherein the liberality con- 

 sisted, for during the whole time he had been working 

 for Seba, Artedi had been living at his own expense. 

 Linn.eus would seem to be using the expression in an 

 ironical sense; he himself certainly met with a far more 

 really liberal and generous treatment at the hands of 

 those Dutchmen and others in whose service he was 

 engaged. Nor does Seba, as we shall see, come out well 

 in the light of subsequent events. 



The profound grief which Linnaeus felt at the pre- 

 mature decease of his friend finds fitting utterance in 

 the following striking passage in his writings: — "When 

 I beheld his lifeless body stiff and stark, and saw his 

 livid lips filmed with the frost of death; when I reflected 

 upon the unhappy fate of this my best and dearest friend 

 these many years past; when I recalled to mind the in- 

 numerable sleepless nights, the countless hours of strenu- 

 ous labour, the wearisome and perilous journeys, and the 

 heavy expense in various ways, which the man now lying 

 dead before me had been fain to undergo and submit 

 to ere he could attain to that standard of learning which 



webrugsteg, and that he was buried as a pauper in St. Anthonys 

 Churchyard. That burial-ground was some years ago appropriated 

 to other purposes, part of it being allotted as building-land to a 

 Primary School and part added to the University Botanical Gardens. 

 There will never probably have been any monument raised to mark 

 where the penniless foreign student was laid to rest, and doubtless 

 the spot and the event were soon forgotten. An opportunity has 

 now, however, been afforded the admirers of Artedi' s career and 

 work to record for coming generations that gratitude is felt for 

 what he achieved, inasmuch as leave has recently been obtained to 

 have a simple stone raised in the Gardens of the Royal Zoological 

 Society "Natura Artis Magistra", in the cit} r where he met his death. 



