OF THE LIFE OF LINNAEUS. 
This opinion is too much stamped with gallic levity to require any 
kind of apology here. Patriotism, and the penetrating knowledge of 
two meritorious Swedish literati * have already satisfactorily vindicated 
the honour of their immortal fellow-countryman from the obloquy of 
the French panegyrist. They wanted neither the inventive powers 
of logic, nor the strength of syllogisms, in accomplishing this laudable 
end. A plain statement of faCts constituted the best defence. Upon 
the whole, M. Vicq d’Azyr had not read the writings of Linnaus 
with that competent accuracy which must otherwise have enabled him 
to see in a proper light his merits as a theoretical physician. 
« The Genera Morborum,” adds Vic§ d’Azyr, “ are a nosological 
“ picture in which Linnjeus lavishes such a jumble of unusual and bar- 
et barous terms to class the diseases and even the slightest indispo- 
“ sitions, that, upon a thorough perusal, the number of ills which 
« affliCt the human race seem at least augmented by one halft.” 
With regard to the barbarous terms, it is a chimerical wish, to re- 
quire every expression to be Ciceronian in a medical nomenclature, or 
in a nosological manual. Linn a, us was more studious of the precision 
than of the beauty of words. In his general division of diseases he re- 
duced them to eleven classes, thirty-seven orders, and three hundred and 
twenty-five species. Professor De Sauvaces had upon the whole 
eleven classes, forty-four orders, and three hundred and fourteen 
* Dr. Blom, in a Swedish work entituled Samling of R" ocb Uptahter uti Physique, He, 
Cottenburgh, 1781. — and S. A. Hedin, first physician to the king, in his work of Quid Lite, 
N^eo Patri debeat. 
t Qritls sont un Tableau Nosologique, dans lequel l’auteur a employe avec une sorte de 
profusion une foule de noms inusites et barbares, pour classer les maladies et mSme les incom- 
modites les plus legeres, de sorte, qu’en le lisant, il semble, que le nombre des maux, dont 
I’espsce humaine est affligee, est au moms augmente de moitic. 
F f 2 
species. 
