Charles XII, that university had been obliged to close 

 its portals, and though by this time reopened and re- 

 constituted, it had not attained to anything like its former 

 status. Consequently it was in Upsala that Peter in- 

 scribed his name as a matriculated student, on October 

 30 1724. As a matter of fact the actual signature in the 

 university register is by another hand, doubtless that 

 of the Dean of the Faculty for the time being; the entry 

 runs: — "Petrus Arctelius Angerm. 1 ", thus showing a 

 slight scribal error. In another register, that in which 

 the newly arrived undergraduates inscribed their names 

 and the amounts subscribed to the library funds, we 

 find in Peter's own hand-writing: — 



^P*^™* <GZfc&£eLLlU' Q^i^r77iartnus 



with the amount paid in: — 4 dalers 16 ore. This signa- 

 ture shows that up to that time he retained the family 

 name in the same spelling as that adopted by his grand- 

 father; it was not till some years subsequently that he 

 assumed the variant by which he is known to fame. 



It was originally intended that he should devote 

 himself to the study of theology at the university, that 

 he might in due time follow in the footsteps of his 

 father and grandfather and perhaps even succeed to 

 the living of Nordmaling. His own pronounced bent, 

 however, in another direction forbade him to adopt 

 that course in obedience to his father's natural desires 

 on his behalf; the keen interest he had felt in natural 

 history as quite a boy, and the taste he had imbibed 



1 Angerm [annus] denotes: — "From the District of Angerman- 

 lancT. Undergraduates at Upsala (and Lund) are classed in "Nations", 

 according to the parts of the country from which they come. The 

 joining of a Nation is an obligatory preliminary to matriculation. 

 Each Nation has a club-house of its own, and administers scholar- 

 ship funds &c. for the benefit of its members. 



