222 REMARKABLE OCCURRENCES 
This is a summary view of the labours by which Linnaus ac- 
quired his medical celebrity in Sweden, and by which he formed the 
greatest part of the young Swedish praCtitionera*. We now return to 
his chief study, to natural history. Flora was the fair deity to 
tvhom he did homage in his youth, and to whose service he most 
zealously continued to devote himself even in his old age. « But one 
“single reign of nature,” continues Dean B^ck, the celebrated 
Swedish panegyrist of Linn a: us, « was too confined a sphere for him 
“ to move in. With the same spirit and success he made conquests 
“ equally great in the animal reign. This reign was covered with still 
“ greater darkness, and remained a chaos of intricacy and confusion. 
“^Gesner, Aldrovandi, and Ray, had spread over it some small 
« streaks of a dawning light, but through Linn at us alone it first ap- 
peared as a serene^ and resplendent day. His animal system con- 
* Dr. Hedin comprises the merits of Linnaeus in the Materia Medico, and in medicine 
at large, in the following nine points : 
I. Simplicium exaftissimam dedit cognitionem, et quoad principia Botanica et vires, qu* 
ha&enus omnino inter desiderata Mate rise Medicae erant. 
II. Dudum nota et usitata propius determinate et ad species referre docuit 
III. Nova indigena introduxit, vel frequent™ usurpare docuit, quo simul medicinam 
domesticam per Sueciae regiones usitatam brevi.er exposuit, et Ioca natalia plantarum apud 
aos indicavit. * 
IV. Exotica, quae usus medici sunt vel detexit, vel determinavit, ut nobis jam eonstet, 
Tel quibus in casibus, omnem impleant indicationem, vel quibus etiam excipiantur apris suc- 
cedaneis, in quorum investigationem quam maxime erat intentus. 
V. Simplicium, quoad multitudinem nimiam et usum rariorem, rigidissimam instituit 
censuram. 
VI. In venenatorum inquisivit usum, et dosin sensim determinate docuit. 
VII. Culturam plantarum medicinalium ad unguem perduxit. 
VIII. Modum colligendi et methodum exhibendi Medicamenta proposuit. 
IX. Medicamentoruin compositorum usum restrinxit. 
See Hedin’s Colleftio Epistolanun Linnai; accedunt opuscula pro et contra Linnaum 
scripta extra Sueciam rarissima, Hamb, 1792, Svo. 
3 
u sisted 
