LINN^US AT STOCKHOLM. 145 



*' hours I had bestowed on it; but every corner resounded with the 

 " humiliating lesson I had received from this Siegesbeck. I began 

 " to set up for a pra6litioner, but my success was very slow. They 

 " would not even employ me in a servant's cure. But in a short time, 

 " adversity ceased to persecute, and after many clouded days, the lucid 

 " sun broke through my obscurity. I rose, — was called to the great, — 

 every thing turned out prosperous ; no patient could be cured with- 

 " out me; from four o'clock in the morning till late at night, I visited 

 " the sick, spent nights with them, and earned money. Alas ! said I 

 " ^scuLAPius affords all that is good, but Flora yields but Sieges- 

 " becks. I renounced botany, and resolved a thousand times to de- 

 « stroy all my coUeftions for ever. Soon after I was appointed first 

 " physician to the fleet, and after a short lapse of time the States chose 

 *' me botanist to the King, and assigned me an annual salary to teach 

 " that science at Stockholm *. I now grew fond again of plants, and 



married my bride, who, after five long years, still thought me worthy 

 " of her love. My father-in-law, however, is dearly fond of money, 

 " he does not like to part with it. For my own part I can do with- 

 " out, and thus leave it to my offspring." 



The cure of a long, and now, alas ! a fashionable distemper of a friend, 

 which was efFefted in a fortnight, paved Linnaeus the way to fortune in 

 his practice. This recovered patient recommended L i n n ^ u s as an able 

 physician to his numerous acquaintance. Among these were several of the 

 same description who complained of weakness in the breast, and abstained 

 on this account from drinking wine. They applied to Linn us, he re- 



• This salary amounted to one hundred ducats per annum, and was chiefly granted him as 

 a reward for his learned exertions abroad. 



u Stored 



