272 
LINNiEUS 
settled in Uppsala. The Secretary was the famous 
Anders Celsius, but during his long travels abroad, 
matters had fallen into arrears. Celsius dying in 
1744, Linne acted as his deputy, until later in the 
same year he became definitely the Secretary. 
Among the perquisites of the office, was free postage, 
granted by the King, and this explains Linne’s 
request in a letter to Arduino, in 1764, that all letters 
may be sent to him as Secretary, so as to spare him 
postage at about a ducat each letter. [Nearly ten 
shillings.] 
The state of the Society was at this time unsatis¬ 
factory. Most of the members abstaining from the 
meetings, the papers for the “ Acta ” were few and 
dull, the accounts and property diminished, and the 
two banknotes which represented all the effects of the 
Society disappeared. It was Linne’s problem to 
bring affairs into better order, and vigorous steps were 
taken. It was determined that all who had not sent 
contributions in two years to the Acta at the next New 
Year should be removed, and a fine of ten copper 
dalers [five shillings] imposed on each absentee from 
a meeting. 
The result was that in 1744, a new volume was 
brought out, with a paper by Linne on Orchids, and 
another on Belgian fishes by Gronovius; the following 
years showing improvement, though not permanent. 
From 1750 to 1755 nothing was published, and Linne 
induced friends abroad to join, but finally gave up the 
secretaryship in 1765? Carl Aurivillius succeeding 
him. . Eight years later a new volume came out 
containing two of Linne’s contributions; and John 
Ellis’s paper on Dioncza muscipula. 
In 1762 he was appointed one of the eight foreign 
members of the French Academy, the first time a 
Swede had been selected for that honour. The 
foreign societies which had thus distinguished him, 
were: Germany (Academia Naturae Curiosorum, 
1738), Montpellier (1743), Florence (1755), London 
