It had till then been universally believed, that Sprecke l sen was pos- 
sessed of a singular phenomenon ; but the keen eye of the } oun e 
traveller, replaced this pretended prodigy into the rank which it should 
never have relinquished, namely that of a curiosity and a fine pro- 
duaion of art. It represented, and was deemed to be a serpent with 
seven heads. Upon close inspection, Linnaeus discovered that those 
seven and extraordinary heads, far from being natural, were merely 
faaitious. He found that they consisted of nothing but the jaw bones 
of weasels artfully covered with serpent’s skin, regardless of the pal- 
pable difference which subsists between the structure of the jaw bones 
of weasels and of serpents. 
Thus the phenomenon of Hamburgh all on a sudden ceased to be 
a wonder; a circumstance which proved somewhat fatal both to Sprec- 
kelsen and Linnaeus. The seven heads had stamped a great value 
on this serpent. It had been the pledged security for a loan of ten 
thousand marks, and now it became scarcely worth one hundred. This 
event occasioned many schisms and embarrassments. It was finally 
insisted on, that Linn^os should prove before an academical Forum, 
that the serpent was not a phenomenon. In this ciisis Dr. Jaenis 
gave him the friendly advice to quit Hamburgh with all possible speed, 
in order to avoid all useless delays and litigations. Linn^us .olio ed 
this advice, and was frequently after heard to say : « I only had one 
« friend at Hamburgh; this was Dr. Jaenisch; for he was a true 
« friend to me*.” Thus commenced the travels of Linn* us with ad- 
ventures and unexpefted accidents, thus was he obliged, on account of 
his genius and better penetration to leave a city where he had so- 
* « Doftor J*msch unicus fait amicus, quern Hamburg! habui ; verus coin fait amicus^ 
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