Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 14.djvu/697

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L I N N U S 673 then, crossing the mountain range, he came out upon the coast of Finmark. He retraced his steps to Lulea, and at Calix he learned the art of assaying " in two days and a night," continuing his journey through Torneil, and the eastern coast of the gulf of Bothnia to Abo ; there he rested eight days, and finally reached Upsala by sea. The distance traversed in this tour was upwards of 4600 English statute miles ; the cost of his journey is given at 112 silver dollars, or less than 25 sterling. His own account of the journey was published in English by Sir J. E. Smith, under the title Lachesis Lapponica, in 1811; the scientific results were published in his Flora Lapponica, Amsterdam, 1737. In 1733 Linnaeus was engaged in teaching the method of assaying ores, and hoped to be allowed to lecture on botany ; but a quarrel broke out between a rival, Rosen, and himself, the former having, by private influence, contrived to get a prohibition put on all private lectures on medicine in the university. Linnaeus, enraged at finding his livelihood thus cut off, went so far as to draw his sword upon Rosen, but was prevented from harming his antagonist. At this juncture the governor of Dalecarlia invited Linnaeus to travel through his province, as he had dons through Lapland. Whilst on this journey he lectured at Fahlun to large audiences ; Browallius, the chaplain there, after wards bishop of Abo, now strongly urged Linnaaus to go abroad and take his degree of M.D. at a foreign university, by which means he could afterwards settle where he pleased. Linnaeus, having become attached to the eldest daughter of Dr More* or Moraeus, left Sweden in 1735 to seek his fortune in the manner stated, and to return to claim her hand. He travelled by Liibeck and Hamburg ; detecting a seven-headed hydra to be a fabrication at the latter, he was obliged to quit the town in haste to avoid the wrath of its possessor. From Altona he went by sea to Amsterdam, staying there a week ; he then proceeded to Harderwijk, where he went through the requisite examination, and de fended his thesis on the cause of intermittent fever. His scanty funds were now nearly spent, but he passed on through Haarlem to Leyden ; there he called on Grono- vius, who, returning the visit, was shown the Sy sterna Xaturse. in MS., and was so greatly astonished at it that he sent it to press at his own expense. The first edition was in eight folio sheets ; the subsequent editions were in Svo ; and the twelfth immensely enlarged edition appeared during the author s lifetime. ,This famous system, which, artificial as it was, substituted order for confusion, largely made its way on account of the lucid and admirable laws, and comments on them, which were issued almost at the same time. See BOTANY, vol. iv. p. 80. Boer- haave, whom Linnaeus saw after -waiting eight days for admission, recommended him to Burman at Amsterdam, where he stayed a twelvemonth, living at the house of the professor. While there he issued his Fundamenta Botanica, an unassuming small octavo, which has exercised immense influence. The wealthy banker Cliffort having invited Linnaeus to visit his magnificent garden at Harte- camp, he remained there, living like a prince, but work ing most assiduously in the garden arid library, both of which were kept up without regard to cost. His Flora Lapponica was now printed, containing a description of the genus Linnxa, by his friend Gronovius ; he selected this plant to bear his name, from a similarity, as he thought, between it and himself. Whilst living with Cliffort, Linnaeus met with his old fellow-student Artedi, who was quite destitute, having spent all his money in London ; Linnams introduced him to Seba, then working at fishes, Artedi s chief object of study ; he worked hard at describ ing thorn, until only six remained undescribed, when he unfortunately fell into a canal at night, and was drowned. Linnaeus persuaded Cliffort tc redeem the manuscript, and he published it as a memorial of his deceased friend. In 1736 Linnaaus visited England. He was warmly recommended by Boerhaave to Sir Hans Sloane, but the old collector seems to have received him coldly. A better reception awaited him at Oxford, where Dr Shaw welcomed him cordially ; Dillenius, the professor of botany there, was icy at first, but afterwards thawed completely, kept him a month, and even offered to share the emoluments of the chair with him. At Chelsea he saw Philip Miller, and took some plants thence to Cliffort ; but certain other stories which are current about Linnajus s visit to England are of very doubtful authenticity. On his return to the Netherlands he completed the printing of his Genera Piantarum, a volume which must be considered the starting point of modern systematic botany; Tournefort formed many genera, but Linnaeus was the first to circumscribe them. During the same year, 1737, Linnaeus finished arranging Cliffords collection of plants, living and dried ; these were described in the Hortus Cliffortianus, a folio illustrated with engravings by Ehret ; this book was entirely written in nine months. During the compilation he used to " amuse " himself with drawing up the Critica Botanica, also printed in the Netherlands. But this strenuous and unremitting labour told upon him ; the atmosphere of the Low Countries seemed to oppress him beyond endurance ; he resisted all Cliffort s entreaties to remain with him, and started homewards. Van Royen managed to detain him a year at Leyden, to help in rearranging the garden, thereby offending Cliffort, whom he had quitted on the plea of hastening back to Sweden. Linnaeus now published his Classes Piantarum, and almost at the same time appeared Van Royen s Hortus Leydensis and Gronovius s Flora Viryinica, both of these being drawn up on the Linnaaan system. In 1738 Boerhaave pressed Linnaeus to accept a post at Surinam; he declined this for himself, but passed it on to Johan Bartsch of Konigsberg, a member with himself of a select club of naturalists at Leyden. Bartsch ultimately fell a victim to the climate of that colony. While residing at Leyden Linnaeus was warned that one- of his acquaintance was endeavouring to supplant him in_ the affections of Sara More ; he intended to set out at once, but was attacked by ague before he could start. Cliffort, hearing of this, took Linnaaus to his own house again, and would not suffer him to depart until he was sufficiently well. His complete recovery, however, did not take place until he had gained the higher country of Brabant, where in one day he felt himself entirely renovated. He con tinued his journey to Paris, where he visited Antoine and Bernard de Jussieu, botanizing with the latter. Abandon ing all notion of returning through Germany, he went to Rouen, sailed for Sweden, and landed at Helsingborg. Linnaeus established himself in September 1738 as physician in Stockholm, but, being unknown as a medical man, no one at first cared to consult him, a great change from the attention paid to him abroad ; he himself declared " that, had he not been in love, he would certainly have left his native country." By degrees he found patients, was then appointed naval physician at Stockholm, with minor appointments, and was married on the 26th June 1739. Early in 1740 Rudbeck died, and Roberg resigned; the chairs of botany and medicine at Upsala being thus vacant, Rosen and Linnaeus were chosen respectively to fill them. The former rivals afterwards agreed to exchange professor ships to their mutual benefit; in 1741, previous to this exchange, Linnaeus travelled through Oland and Gothland, by command of the state, publishing his results in Olandska och Gothlandska fiesa, 1745. The index to this volume shows the first employment of trivial names in nomenclature. XIV. 85