LINNAEUS IN HOLLAND. 
83 
in ichthyology, the science to which he had wholly devoted his labours. 
From England he came to Holland, where he wished to take his degree 
of Doctor, but want of money prevented him, and his family circum- 
stances were still more unfavourable than those of Linn.eus. The 
latter became his patron. He recommended him to the celebrated 
apothecary Se ba, at Amsterdam*, a peculiar lover of natural history, who 
had colle&ed a great quantity of natural curiosities, and began to describe 
them, but needed some assistance owing to his advanced stage of life. 
Seba received Artedi as his assistant. “ No sooner,” says Linnaeus, 
“ had I finished my Fundamenta Botanica, than I hastened to commu- 
“ nicate them to Artedi ; he shewed me on his part the work which 
“ had been the result of several years ftudy, his Philosophia Ichthyologica , 
“ and other manuscripts. I was delighted with his familiar converse; 
“ meanwhile overwhelmed with business, I grew impatient at his 
detaining me too long. Alas ! had I known that this was the 
« last visit, the laft words of my friend, how fain would I have tarried 
K to prolong his exiftence !” 
In a short time after, on the 25th of September 1735* Artedi was 
in company at Seba’s — he left his house to return home — the night 
was dark, unknown the way — he comes to the brink of canal 
not inclosed with rails, in which he falls- — his shrieks and moans 
not heard — the struggles of his agony are unwitnessed — he falls, far 
from his native land, in the bloom of youth, 1 * that ele- 
ment the inhabitants of which were so familiar to him, ar^ 10 the belt : 
« Seba died on the 21ft of May, 1736, in the 74th year of his age. The work which 
chiefly distinguished his name in the scientific world, is entituled Locuplelissimi rerum Na- 
turalium thesauri accurata descriptio, el iconibus artificmuiimus expression Amstelod, tom. 
iv. with 449 plates. 
M 2 
knowledge 
