I 43 ] 



ber of their annular lamin£^ or fcales, it is fup-^ 

 pofed the fifli will attain a very great age 50 or 60 

 years are imagined to be a moderate computatipn. 

 The difcovery turned on a method, which Lm- 

 NiEus found, of putting thefe mufcles into a 

 ftate of producing pearls at his pleafiire ; though 

 the final effect did not take place for feverai 

 years : he fays, that in 5 or 6 years after the 

 operation the pearl ^^^-hmt, acquired the fize 

 of a Vetch, We are unacquainted with the means 

 by which he accompliH^ed this extraordinary ope- 

 ration, but it was probably publilhed at the 

 time, and confidered as important, fmce it is cer- 

 tain that the author was rewarded with a munifi« 

 cent pr^mium^ from the States of the kingdom, 

 on this account. We regret that we cannot 

 fpeak more fully on this head ; but may ob- 

 ferve, that it is probable, from a paper publilhed 

 many years afterwards in the Berlin Acts, that the 

 method confifted in injuring the (hell externally, 

 perhaps by a perforation ; as it has been obferved^ 

 that thefe concretions in Ihell-fifh are found on 

 the infide, exadily oppofite to perforations and 

 injuries made from without by ferpula^ and other 

 animals. 



From the time that Linn^us and Rofen were 

 appointed profcfTors at Vpfal^ it Ihould feem 

 that the credit of that univerfity, as a fchool 

 of phyfic, had been increafing ; and the fa6l in- 

 deed is certain, that numbers of ftudents re- 

 forted thither from Germany^ attraded by the 

 chara6ler of thefe two able men : and certainly in 

 Sweden itfeif^ many young men were invited to 



i:he 



