i5° 



HA RD WICKE' S SCIENCE- G OS SIP. 



everybody was willing to allow how unexceptional 

 his moral conduct was, yet on the other hand, it was 

 thought right to advise the father to put the youth as 

 an apprentice to some tailor or shoemaker, or some 

 other manual employment." 



There was one person, however, who thoroughly 

 appreciated the boy's particular form of industry : 

 this was the physician of Wexio College, Dr. Roth- 

 man, who strongly insisted that Carl should not be 

 forced into studies for which he had no taste, but 

 that he should rather be taught medicine, a calling 

 which would interest him and utilise his knowledge 

 of botany. Carl added his own entreaties, and 

 remained with Dr. Rothman, who instructed him in 

 physiology and botany, the latter according to 

 Tournefort, whose system was for a considerable 

 time the favourite one of all botanists. Many 

 Swedish plants were not to be found in his nomen- 

 clature, and Carl thought he could himself improve 

 the system, or even invent another which should be 

 more complete. Rothman recognised very soon that 

 his pupil had got beyond him, but he did not know 

 that he had helped to form a greater botanist than 

 Tournefort. 



Leaving Wexio, Linnaeus was sent to Lund 

 University, and froirfthence to Upsala, as a superior 

 school of medicine. He worked there with the 

 greatest zeal, knowing that he had only himself to 

 depend on : happy in thoughts of future utility and 

 greatness, and, above all, with an immense love of 

 truth and a longing rightly to name and define things. 

 He had enquired which of the students was the most 

 noted for his knowledge of natural history : the name 

 of Artedi was mentioned. 



Peter Artedi was two years older than Linnaeus, 

 and, like him, had been intended for the church. 

 They became fast friends. Both were enthusiastic, 

 energetic, laborious, and both miserably poor. Carl 

 was said to be the poorest student who had ever entered 

 the University. "Never mind," he would say, "put 

 a Smalander on a barren rock and he will make his 

 living." The proverb was capped by Artedi : 

 " Nothing like poverty for strengthening the 

 character." The theory might be good, but the 

 practice was cruel. They had to live on bad and 

 insufficient food, and would shiver for hours before 

 they fell asleep. 



In the winter of 1728 Carl obtained a royal scholar- 

 ship, value about five pounds ; but this would hardly 

 suffice for the mending of their threadbare garments, 

 or replace the old shoes, of which very little was left 

 besides the strings. They picked up a meal here 

 and there by coaching dull or backward students, but 

 at last in despair and reduced to actual famine, Carl 

 had made up his mind to leave Upsala, when Dean 

 Celsius, Professor of Divinity, who had just returned 

 from Stockholm, chanced to meet him, and was 

 struck with his intelligence. His pale face and 

 wasted appearance told its own tale. The professor 



engaged him to assist in a scientific work he was 

 then preparing, and entrusted him with the education 

 of his children. 



It was a time of comparative leisure, and he was 

 able to draw up his famous treatise, which Dr. 

 Celsius acknowledged to be full of new and brilliant 

 observations. He became a popular teacher and 

 lecturer : the beauty of his face and voice, his 

 simplicity and enthusiasm, completely captivated his 

 hearers ; he had a thorough knowledge of his subject, 

 and in the virtues of medicinal plants he was un- 

 surpassed ; one of his most eminent pupils said of 

 him : " Science streamed with peculiar pleasantness 

 from his lips. He spoke with a conviction and 

 perspicuity which his deep penetration, his clear 

 notions, and ardent zeal inspired him with. It was 

 impossible to be near him without attention, without 

 participating in his enthusiasm." 



All through his studies he kept strictly in view the 

 curative uses of plants, and his work, the " Materia 

 Medica," was long considered the best book on the 

 subject. In 1735 he went to Holland to obtain his 

 diploma, enabling him to practise physic as a 

 livelihood. Learning was then a power, and poor as 

 he was Linnaeus lived in intimacy with all the 

 scientists of Leyden. Boerhaave gave him an intro- 

 duction to Professor Burmann of Amsterdam, who 

 was then preparing a work on the plants of Ceylon, 

 and who gratefully accepted his assistance. 



Here he again met Artedi, who was still in the 

 old state of beggary, from which it seemed hopeless 

 to expect him ever to immerge. Carl managed to 

 procure for him some employment, but he was one of 

 those men marked out for evil fortune. The fickle 

 goddess never came to him " with both hands full." 

 Dr. Boerhaave had a patient, by name Clifford, who 

 was an enthusiastic botanist ; to him Linnaeus was 

 introduced, with a view of helping him to arrange his 

 rare and valuable collection of plants, of which the 

 young Swede displayed such knowledge, that Clifford 

 invited him to share his home with an allowance of 

 1000 florins per annum. 



He writes in his diary : "Thus Linnaeus moved 

 to Clifford's, where he lived like a prince, had one of 

 the finest gardens in the world under his inspection, 

 with commission to procure all the plants that were 

 wanting and such books as were not to be found in 

 the library, and of course enjoyed all the advantages 

 he could wish for in his botanical labours, to which he 

 devoted himself day and night." 



Clifford sent him to England at his own expense, 

 with a strong letter of recommendation to Sir Hans 

 Sloane, who was then an old man and somewhat 

 averse to new doctrines ; he did not, therefore, 

 receive him very warmly, but another letter to Philip 

 Miller, gardener to the Apothecaries' Society, procured 

 him access to the celebrated Chelsea garden, where 

 he found a class of quite new plants flourishing on 

 our chalky soil, of which none were to be found in 



