f 46 ] 



been continued, from time to time, to the com-^ 

 pletion of the feventh volume in the year 1769. 

 Holm. Thefe volumes, as foon as publiftied, 

 were conftantly reprinted in Germany and HoU 

 land. As thefe academical dilTertations were 

 fuftained under Linn^us in his profeflbrial 

 chara6ler, and were feleded by himfelf, they 

 have been regarded as of equal authority nearly 

 with his own writings ; and many of them^ 

 do in a particular manner extend and exemplify 

 divers parts of his works, the fubjeds having 

 been pointed oiit by himfelf, in many inftances, 

 for that purpofe. For thefe reafons we fhall, in 

 the courfe of this volume, give a very brief ac- 

 count of the purport of each differtation, fmce they 

 contain a great variety 6f curious intelligence on 

 the fubjedls of phyfic and natural hiftory, every 

 where digefted in the moft fcientific tafte. 



Whilft LiNNi^ius was meditating one of hisf 

 capital performances, which had long been ex- 

 peded, and greatly wifhed for, he was interrupted 

 by a very long and painful fit of the gout, which 

 left him in a very weak and difpirited ftate ; and, 

 a^ccording to the intelligence that his friends gave 

 of him, nothing was thought to have contributed 

 more to the redoration of his fpirits, than the 

 feafohable acquifition, at this jundure, of a col- 

 lection of rare and undefcribed plants. 



Upon the recovery of his health, he publiflied 

 his book Philosophia Botanica in qua expli^ 

 cdntur fundament a botanica cum defmitionibus fartium^ 

 fxemplis terminorufn^ cbfervationibus rariorum^ ad-- 



