* Funding and Education: Studying medicine offered him a pathway to financial support through scholarships and stipends. The curriculum at the time encompassed botany and natural history, providing him with a solid foundation for his future work. This was crucial given his relatively humble background.
* Social Standing and Networking: A medical degree conferred a level of social standing and respectability that would have been difficult to obtain otherwise. His education at universities like Uppsala and Harderwijk brought him into contact with influential scholars and patrons who would later support his botanical pursuits. This networking was key to his success.
* Access to Collections and Resources: Medical schools had access to botanical gardens, herbaria, and other resources essential to his studies and research. These institutions provided him with the materials and environment necessary to develop his classification system.
* Platform for his Work: Although he never became a practicing physician in the traditional sense, his medical background provided him with a credible platform to launch his botanical work and gain acceptance from the scientific community. His medical knowledge also helped inform his understanding of plant properties and their potential uses.
In short, while medical school wasn't an ideal path towards a career in medicine for Linnaeus, it was a pragmatic and necessary step to allow him to pursue his true passion – taxonomy and the classification of the natural world. It provided him with the education, resources, and social capital required to become a world-renowned naturalist.