Linnaeus is glad that Abraham Bäck visited him, and pleased to have heard so much news. He just lacks the information that Bäck has been appointed president [Linnaeus refers to Bäck’s appointment as president of the Collegium medicum].
Linnaeus will be awake in the evening and receive Johan Johansson Haartman.
Linnaeus would be pleased if Mårten Kähler could travel, as Bäck and Linnaeus both want. However, Bäck should make clear to him what is expected of him, so that he does not just go to an academy and stay there for some time. He must work at natural science, which he is good at.
Linnaeus has so much proof-reading to do this day that he does not have time to write to Carl Gustaf Tessin.
If the Queen [Lovisa Ulrika] pays for Fredrik Hasselquist’s collections, she is a goddess, and Bäck is an angel. Linnaeus has been very concerned about this material.
Kähler just came to see Linnaeus, so Linnaeus will give him a sermon himself.
Linnaeus admits that he has given many species names after botanists. It would be a shame if Linnaeus did not name one after Bäck, whose herbarium has given Linnaeus so many nice plants and who is helping botany so magnificently. Bäck’s work for Hasselquist is alone worth more than that of many others.
Linnaeus wonders what the plate with butterflies could mean, and where it comes from [Linnaeus presumably refers to information given by Bäck in a letter, which has not come down to us]. He asks if they could be English.
Every doctor should praise Bäck for his [work] about water, which gives a firm ground for all medicine.
Linnaeus reveres Bäck for his friendship and for his work for natural science. That really is the mark of a true president.