24 
LINNAEUS 
the sick youth with scant hope of his life, but entrusted 
the care of him to Veterinary and University Surgeon 
Carl Christopher Schnell. The latter “ made a great 
incision from the elbow to the armpit/’ after which 
his recovery was so rapid, that by the 28th June, 
Linnaeus was able to travel homeward to Stenbrohult, 
which he reached the day following. That he did 
not, after his health was restored and strength 
regained, continue his excursions in Skane, he gave 
as the reason, that he received a letter from his bene¬ 
factor Rothman, who urgently insisted that he should 
exchange Lund for Uppsala. In Linnaeus’s earlier 
autobiographies this illness was ascribed to a virulent 
abscess in the right arm, or a seyere inflammation; 
afterwards it was attributed to the attack of a small 
hair-like worm which found a place in the “ Fauna 
suecica,” Ed. II., 503, as Furia inf emails, by many 
regarded as a myth. The latest investigator, 
Sir Arthur E. Shipley, F.R.S., thinks what probably 
stung Linnaeus, was a virulent insect, which might 
very well have conveyed some pathogenic germs to 
his system, unknown in the time of the great 
naturalist. 
The summer of 1728 was spent at home busy on 
his usual employments, but with this change, that 
now he did not occupy himself only with plants, but 
also animals and minerals, which became his objects 
for later research. He hastened to write to Stobaeus 
about his discoveries and sent specimens. His father, 
who regarded his son’s career as settled, did not 
remark on this, but his mother did; with an almost 
pathetic obstinacy, she still clung to the expectation 
that his stay at Lund would have resulted in a change 
in his plan of life, but when she now saw that Carl 
did nothing but glue plants to paper, she became at 
last convinced that her desires for her dear son’s 
future career were now hopeless. 
During the course of the summer the rectory of 
Stenbrohult received a short visit from Dr. Rothman. 
