HALLER. 



617 



His father, Nicholas von Haller, was an advocate and 

 citizen of Berne, where the son was born in October, 

 1708. The early display of his abilities was most 

 extraordinary, and it is related, that, when but ten 

 years old, he could translate from the Greek ; that he 

 compiled a Chaldee grammar, and a Greek and He- 

 brew dictionary, for his own use ; extracted 2000 

 biographical articles from Bayle and Moreri, and 

 gave other proofs of his devotion to literary studies. 

 He was sent to a public school after his father's death, 

 of 1721 ; and, in 1723, he was removed to the house 

 in a physician at Bienne, for the study of philosophy. 

 Here he pursued a somewhat desultory course of 

 reading, and exercised himself in poetical composi- 

 tion. However, at the close of the year last men- 

 tioned, having chosen the medical profession, he went 

 to the university of .Tubingen, where he studied com- 

 parative anatomy ; and, in 1725, he removed to Ley- 

 den, then the first medical school in Europe, Boer- 

 haave and Albinus being among the professors. He 

 took his degree at Tubingen, whither he went for 

 that purpose, and sustained a thesis, De Ductu Sali- 

 vali Coschwiziano, which topic he farther pursued, in 

 another thesis, at Leyden, in 1727. That year, he 

 visited England, and formed an acquaintance with 

 sir Hans Sloane, Cheselden, doctor James Douglas, 

 and other eminent men. Thence he went to Paris, 

 and dissected under Ledran ; but he was obliged to 

 leave that metropolis, in consequence of having caused 

 subjects for dissection to be brought to his lodgings 

 a piece of indiscretion which attracted the notice of 

 the police. He then went to Basil, to study mathe- 

 matics under John Bernoulli, continuing at the same 

 time his anatomical investigations. Here he first 

 imbibed a taste for botany, and laid the plan of a 

 work, which he long after published, on the plants of 

 Switzerland. Here, too, he indulged his predilection 

 for poetry, and in his twenty-first year composed his 

 poem On the Alps, followed by various ethical epis- 

 tles and other pieces, which gave him a reputation 

 in Germany. 



In 1729, Haller returned to his native city, and 

 entered on his professional career as a public lecturer 

 on anatomy. He did not, however, obtain among his 

 countrymen that encouragement which his talents de- 

 served, owing, in some measure, to a satirical spirit, 

 which occasionally displayed itself in his poetical 

 compositions. In the summers, he made botanical 

 excursions in Switzerland, in the course of which he 

 also applied himself to the study of mineralogy and 

 zoology. In 1736, he was invited, by George II., to 

 accept the professorship of anatomy, surgery, and 

 botany, in the newly founded university of Gottin- 

 gen. He accepted this offer ; but his removal to 

 Hanover was attended with a domestic misfortune, 

 the death of his wife, whom he had married in 1731, 

 and to whom he was much attached. He endeavoured 

 to alleviate his sorrow by close application to scien- 

 tific pursuits. Through his influence, the university 

 was enriched with a botanical garden, an anatomical 

 theatre, a school for midwifery, and a college of sur- 

 gery. His own researches in physiology alone, were 

 enough to immortalize his name. After the death of 

 his master, Boerhaave, in 1738, Haller published his 

 Prelections, with much original matter, in six vols., 

 which appeared successively from 1739 to 1745. But 

 his own discoveries and improvements tended to ren- 

 der this work obsolete ; and in 1747, appeared the 

 first edition of his Primes Linece Physiologies, a 

 synopsis of his own system of that important branch 

 of medical science, as subsequently developed in a 

 larger work. This is a truly valuable production, 

 which, long after the death of the author, was used as 

 a text-book in schools of medicine, and has only been 

 superseded since the extraordinary scientific discov- 



eries of our philosophical contemporaries. In 1752, 

 he first advanced his opinions on the properties of 

 sensibility and irritability, as existing in the nervous 

 and muscular fibres of animal bodies ; doctrines 

 which attracted much attention, and excited great 

 controversies in the medical world. He was, in 

 1748, elected a member of the royal society of Stock- 

 holm, and of that of London in the following year. 

 He likewise received the title of physician and coun- 

 sellor to king George II., at whose request Francis 

 I. gave him a patent of nobility, as a baron of the 

 German empire. 



After seventeen years' residence at Gottingen, his 

 disagreements with his colleagues induced him to 

 return, in 1753, to Berne, where his countrymen re- 

 ceived him with the respect due to his great fame 

 and talents. He settled again among them ; and 

 having been elected a member of the sovereign coun- 

 cil of the state, he soon obtained by lot one of its 

 magistracies, and entered with zeal on the duties of 

 a citizen. He did not neglect his scientific pursuits. 

 He continued to contribute to the Gottingen Gelehrte 

 Anzeigen (for which he wrote more than 12,000 arti- 

 cles), to hold the presidency of the royal society of 

 science, and to receive his academical pensions. In 

 1754, he published at Lausanne, in French (which he 

 wrote with facility), some memoirs on irritability and 

 sensibility, and on the motion of the blood. He was 

 elected, in 1754, one of the foreign associates of the 

 Paris academy of sciences. In 1758, he accepted the 

 appointment of director of the public salt-works at 

 Bex and Aigle, with a small salary. He resided six 

 years at La Roche ; and, in the course of his super- 

 intendence, he introduced many improvements in the 

 manufacture of salt. While thus engaged, he began 

 the publication of his Elementa Physiologies Corporis 

 Humani (Lausanne, 1757 17G6). His next impor- 

 tant literary labours were the Bibliothecce, containing 

 chronological catalogues of works of every age, coun- 

 try, and language, relative to subjects connected with 

 medical science, with concise analyses, and notices of 

 peculiar and important facts and opinions. These 

 libraries of professional knowledge were published in 

 the following order : Bibliotheca botanica (1771, 2 

 vols. 4to); Bibliotheca anatomica (1774, 2 vols. 4to); 

 Bibliotheca chirurgica (1774, 2 vols. 4to); Bibliothe- 

 ca Medicince practices (1776 1788, 4 vols. 4to, the 

 last two volumes having appeared posthumously). 

 On his return from La Roche, he was chosen member 

 of the chamber of appeal for the German district, of 

 the council of finance, and of other bodies ; and also 

 perpetual assessor of the council of health. His 

 various duties as a statesman, a physician, and a me- 

 dical teacher, occupied his attention till his death, 

 which happened December 12, 1777. He had pre- 

 viously suffered much from illness ; but his last mo- 

 ments were peculiarly tranquil. Placing his finger 

 on his wrist, to observe the motion of the artery, lie 

 suddenly exclaimed to his physician, " My friend, I 

 am dying; my pulse stops;" and he immediately 

 expired. 



Haller is considered one of the greatest German 

 poets of the eighteenth century. His philosophical 

 and descriptive poems display depth of thought and 

 richness of imagination. He had to contend with 

 a language which was then imperfect, and to the po- 

 lishing of which his writings contributed. His style 

 is not, however, wholly faultless ; for, in aiming at 

 conciseness and compression, he sometimes becomes 

 obscure. He wrote, in prose, three philosophico- 

 poiitical romances, Usong, Alfred the Great, and 

 Fabius and Cato, designed to exhibit the respective 

 advantages of different forms of government ; and 

 corresponded, in German, Latin, Italian, English, and 

 French, with al! parts of Europe. His Letters to his 



