Vol. XXXI. 1770.
47. Caleceolariæ pinnatæ descriptio.
Many of the doctrines discussed in the course of his lectures were converted by his pupils into subjects of academical dissertations. These were published by him, under the name of Amænitates Academicæ,—a collection which comprises many admirable essays in natural history, medicine, domestic and rural economy. The first volume appeared in 1749, the seventh and last in 1769. An edition in ten volumes, containing also the later essays of Linnæus himself, was published by Schreber in 1785-91. Selections from the Amænitates have also been printed in English and German.
It has been judged necessary to give at least the titles of the numerous works of Linnæus, because the list may be useful to those desirous of examining them generally, or of referring to a particular treatise. The influence which they exercised upon the advancement of science, and especially upon that of botany and zoology, we shall have occasion to notice in the second volume of the present work.
SECTION XIII.
A brief Notice of Linnæus's Son.
Unnatural Conduct of the Mother of the Younger Linnæus—His Birth and Education—In his eighteenth Year he is appointed Demonstrator of Botany, and, three Years after, Conjunct Professor of Natural History—He visits England, France, Holland, Germany, and Denmark—On returning engages in the Discharge of his Duties; but at Stockholm is seized with Fever, which ends in Apoplexy, by which he is carried off—His Character and Funeral.
Although the younger Linnæus has been considered as a botanist rather than a zoologist, a brief notice of him may be suitably appended to the biography of his father, more especially as he can scarcely be said to have possessed an independent existence, either as a man or as a naturalist. The victim of domestic tyranny, he seems to have lost whatever energy he might originally have possessed, and to have passed through life without being influenced by those powerful motives which usually impel ambitious men in their career. His mother, who in her conduct towards him bore some resemblance to the infamous mother of Savage the poet, entirely broke his spirit, which perhaps was never of the most ardent or aspiring description. Not content with making his home as uncomfortable as she could, she conceived a positive hatred for her only son, which she displayed by every affront and persecution that her situation gave her the means of inflicting on his susceptible and naturally amiable mind.[L]
Charles Linnæus was born on the 20th January 1741, at the house of his maternal grandfather, Moræus, at Fahlun. From his earliest childhood he was encouraged by his father in the attachment which he manifested to natural objects, especially plants; and when only ten years old, he knew by name most of those which were cultivated in the botanic garden at Upsal. A stranger, however, to the "stimulus of necessity," which had urged his parent to surmount every obstacle, he appears not to have exhibited any indications of enterprise or enthusiasm. Notwithstanding this, in his eighteenth year, he was appointed demonstrator in the botanical garden, and at the age of twenty-one commenced authorship by publishing a decade of rare plants. Within twelve months another decade was produced, but the work was discontinued, for what reason is not known. In 1763, he was nominated conjunct professor of botany, with the promise that after his father's death he should succeed him in all his academical functions. In 1765, he took his degree of doctor of medicine, and began to give lectures; but, owing to the causes already alluded to, his fondness for science soon degenerated into disgust.
When he was thirty-seven years of age his father died, and he succeeded to his offices; but his mother forced him to pay for the library, manuscripts, herbarium, and other articles, which he ought to have inherited. However, a stimulus was thereby imparted which roused him from his lethargy, and he began in earnest to discharge the duties that were imposed upon him, among which were the arrangement of his father's papers, and the superintendence of new editions of several of his works. A third mantissa or supplement to the Systema Vegetabilium, left in manuscript by Linnæus, and enlarged by his son, was published at Brunswick in 1781, under the care of Ehrhart.