r 7 ] 
fyftem, and was doubtlefs the foundation-ftone of that 
adamantine ftru£ture which himfelf afterwards ereded. 
In the year 1727. at the age of twenty, he went to 
the univerfity of Lund in the province of Schonen, under 
the aufpiccs of his relation ProfeiTor Humterusi but all 
his hopes of fupport and patronage vanilhcd upon his 
arrival there, for he found that his intended protedor 
was lately dead. He however found means to attend the 
ledures of Stobxus the profefibr of botany and medicine, 
and by his extraordinary diligence and great judgement 
fo interefted the profeifor in his favour, that he com- 
paflionated his forlorn condition and received him into 
his houfe. Here he had leifure and opportunity to gra- 
tify in its fulleft extent his ardour for fcience, and here 
for the firft time he faw a well chofen library of works 
on botany and a good colledion of natural hiftory, and 
began to colled and arrange a herbal himfelf. All the 
powers of his mind and body feem now to have been 
concentered in this delightful ftudy. The leifure mo- 
ments he had in the day time were employed in wander- 
ing round the country, exploring and colleding what- 
ever natural objeds occurred to him, carefully examin- 
ing and comparing them with the deferiptions of Tour, 
nefort, and fometimes writing obfervations of his own, 
and afforting them according to fyftem of the mafter he 
ftudied. 1 n one of thefe excurfions he had nearly fallen 
a vidim to the keennefs of his curiofity. The Fuiia 
Infernalis, a fmall flender worm not uncommon in the 
