Introduction to Swedish Science

Abstract

Swedish science may be said to have started about the middle of the seventeenth century. It was then, for example, that the Board of Mines was set up, a government department for the administration of Sweden's mining industry, which also came to provide training for many chemists and mineralogists. At the universities, too, there was evidence of scientific research. The 20-year-old Olof Rudbeck discovered the body's lymphatic system and became a symbol of the new science at Uppsala University and all over Sweden. He wrote a thesis on Harvey's theory of the circulation of the blood, he introduced Cartesian physics to Sweden and he laid out a botanical garden for teaching and research. Olof Rudbeck was a genius, a virtuoso to use the seventeenth century term, and he was unceasingly active for over half a century. He was an architect and a builder, he wrote history and composed music, he started a trades school for boys and he initiated research projects. His construction of teatrum anatomicum in the form of a cupola above the Gustavianum building at Uppsala University was a typical initiative. It was built in 16621663 and the very idea of putting a theater on the roof was quite unique. This anatomical theater still exists.