128 
LINNAEUS 
when as a fact they did not even condemn him to the 
most modest punishment. 
What was the reason of the empty audience 
chambers? Linnaeus, as Rudbeck’s deputy, gave in¬ 
struction by lectures on plant demonstrations, from 
two to four times a week in the afternoon from the 
beginning of May to Midsummer, and arranged 
botanic excursions into the country twice a week 
during the same period with the addition of a few 
paying members. It is hard to see that this should 
have resulted in all the professors having to lecture to 
bare walls, especially as according to that year’s list of 
lectures, none were held at the same time as those 
of Linnaeus, and nearly all in the forenoon. Far from 
any ill-will being shown to Linnaeus in the academic 
records, he was mentioned more often with commend¬ 
ation than any other student, and his services as Rud¬ 
beck’s deputy were specially acknowledged. The 
Consistory even tried to support him by stipends as 
already mentioned. After he had quitted the Uni¬ 
versity, an applicant for the surplus of the Wrede 
stipend had for answer, that he must wait until the 
said scholarship was vacant. That Linnseus did not 
receive the travelling scholarship did not depend 
upon any ill-will, but simply that it was not vacant, and 
moreover he was not eligible for it. 
The accusations, calumnies, and spite, which for 
more than a century have been lavished on Linnseus 
from named or nameless <£ enemies, envious persons 
and persecutors,” have now been subjected to close 
scrutiny. It seems to us high time to reduce these 
accusations to their true value, so that future 
biographies may be spared the erroneous statements 
which have too long been taken for confirmed truths. 
Linnaeus’s student days offer so much instruction, up¬ 
lifting and wonderful, that one is not obliged to 
illuminate them with an invented martyrdom. It 
must be a duty and pleasure for his biographers to 
remove the ugly blemishes, with which unreflecting 
