Carolus Linnaeus the Younger
Encyclopedia
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
naturalist
Natural history
Natural history is the scientific research of plants or animals, leaning more towards observational rather than experimental methods of study, and encompasses more research published in magazines than in academic journals. Grouped among the natural sciences, natural history is the systematic study...
. He is known as Linnaeus filius (abbreviated to L.f. as a botanical authority) to distinguish him from his famous father, the systematist Carl Linnaeus.
He was enrolled at the University of Uppsala at the age of nine and was taught science by his father's students, including Pehr Löfling
Pehr Löfling
Pehr Löfling was a Swedish botanist and an apostle of Carl Linnaeus.-Biography:Löfling was born in Tolvfors Bruk, Gävle , Sweden. He studied at the University of Uppsala where he attended courses taught by Carolus Linnaeus...
, Daniel Solander
Daniel Solander
Daniel Carlsson Solander or Daniel Charles Solander was a Swedish naturalist and an apostle of Carl Linnaeus. Solander was the first university educated scientist to set foot on Australian soil.-Biography:...
and Johann Peter Falck. In 1763, aged just 22, he succeeded his father as the head of Practical Medicine at Uppsala. His promotion to professor — without taking exams or defending a thesis — caused resentment among his colleagues.
Linnaeus' work was modest in comparison to that of his father. His best known work is the Supplementum Plantarum systematis vegetabilium
Supplementum Plantarum
Supplementum Plantarum Systematis Vegetabilium Editionis Decimae Tertiae, Generum Plantarum Editiones Sextae, et Specierum Plantarum Editionis Secundae, commonly abbreviated to Supplementum Plantarum Systematis Vegetabilium or just Supplementum Plantarum, and further abbreviated by botanists to...
of 1781, which contains botanical descriptions by the elder Linnaeus and his colleagues, edited and with additions by the son.
He inherited his father's extensive scientific collections and correspondence and worked to preserve them. When he died childless on 1 November 1783 (of jaundice
Jaundice
Jaundice is a yellowish pigmentation of the skin, the conjunctival membranes over the sclerae , and other mucous membranes caused by hyperbilirubinemia . This hyperbilirubinemia subsequently causes increased levels of bilirubin in the extracellular fluid...
contracted on a visit to London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
) his mother sold the collections to the English botanist Sir James Edward Smith
James Edward Smith
Sir James Edward Smith was an English botanist and founder of the Linnean Society.Smith was born in Norwich in 1759, the son of a wealthy wool merchant. He displayed a precocious interest in the natural world...
, who left them to the Linnean Society of London
Linnean Society of London
The Linnean Society of London is the world's premier society for the study and dissemination of taxonomy and natural history. It publishes a zoological journal, as well as botanical and biological journals...
.