Hero Tales of the Far NorthRiis, Jacob A. (Jacob August)
History
Hero Tales of the Far North
Riis, Jacob A. (Jacob August)
Scandinavia -- History
Linnæus had carried more than his thesis on malarial fever with him
to Holland. At the bottom of his trunk were the manuscripts of two
books on botany which, he told his sweetheart on parting, would yet
make him famous. Probably she shook her head at that. Pills and
powders, and broken legs to set, were more to her way of thinking,
and her father’s, too. If only he had patients, fame might take
care of itself. But now he put them both to shame. At Leyden he
found friends who brought out his first book, “Systema Naturæ,” in
which he divides all nature into the three kingdoms known to every
child since. It was hardly more than a small pamphlet, but it laid
the foundation for his later fame. To the enlarged tenth edition
zoölogists point back to this day as to the bed-rock on which they
built their science. The first was quickly followed by another, and
yet another. Seven large volumes bearing his name had come from the
press before he set sail for home, a whole library in botany, and a
new botany at that, so simple and sensible that the world adopted
it at once.
Dr. Hermann Boerhaave was at that time the most famous physician in
Europe. He was also the greatest authority on systematic botany.
Great men flocked to his door, but the testy old Dutchman let them
wait until it suited him to receive them. Peter the Great had to
cool his heels in his waiting-room two long hours before his turn
came. Linnæus he would not see at all—until he sent him a copy of
his book. Then he shut the door against all others and summoned
the author. The two walked through his garden, and the old doctor
pointed proudly to a tree which was very rare, he said, and not
in any of the books. Yes, said Linnæus, it was in Vaillant’s. The
doctor knew better; he had annotated Vaillant’s botany himself, and
it was not there. Linnæus insisted, and the doctor, in a temper,
went for the book to show him. But there it was; Linnæus was
right. Nothing would do then but he must stay in Holland. Linnæus
demurred; he could not afford it. But Dr. Boerhaave knew a way out
of that. He had for a patient Burgomaster Cliffort, a rich old
hypochondriac with whom he could do nothing because he would insist
on living high and taking too little exercise. When he came again
he told him that what he needed was a physician in daily attendance
upon him, and handed him over to Linnæus.
“He will fix your diet and fix your garden, too,” was his
prescription. The Burgomaster was a famous collector and had a
wondrous garden that was the apple of his eye. He took Linnæus
into his house and gave him a ducat a day for writing his menu and
cataloguing his collection. That was where his books grew, and the
biggest and finest of them was “Hortus Cliffortianus,” the account
of his patron’s garden.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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