Professor of Anatomy and Physics in the University of Upsala, which has a great reputation at the present day. He also devoted many years to the development of the neglected botanical gardens at Upsala. He ultimately lectured on botany at the same university, and became its rector, and many of his students came from England, France, Germany, Russia and America. He also lectured on natural history and materia medica.
In 1768 Linnæus published the last edition of his Systema Naturæ, and in the preface he says:—
I have ranged through thick and shady forests of nature; I have to and fro found sharp and perplexing thorns; I have, as much as possible, avoided them, but learned at the same time that foresight and attention do not always conciliate perfect and entire safety. I have therefore quietly borne the derision of grinning satyrs, and the jumps of monkeys upon my shoulders. I have entered the career and completed the course assigned by fate.
Concerning natural history, Linnæus published a description of the Swedish animals, birds, insects, minerals, etc., and he divided them into three kingdoms, and characterised them as follows:
Lapides, corpora congesta, nec viva, nec sentientia.
Vegetabilia, corpora organisata et viva, non sentientia.
Animalis, corpora organisata et viva et sentientia, sponteque se moventia.
Minerals are unorganized; plants are organized and live; and animals are organized, live, feel, and move spontaneously: and in the animal kingdom he had recognized—six classes mammals, birds, amphibians (including
