viii] in the Eighteenth Century. 205 



that went before. It was the year in which the first volume of 

 the Elementa Physiologice of Haller was published, the eighth 

 and last volume leaving the press in 1765. 



Albrecht von Haller, descendant of an old Swiss family, was 

 born at Bern on 18th October, 1708. Precocious as a child he 

 while yet young acquired a large knowledge both of literature 

 and science, the former at first being dominant in him and 

 leading him to the composition of many juvenile poems. Losing 

 his father while yet a lad of thirteen he continued his education 

 for some time at Bern, but in 1723 entered the University, of 

 Tubingen. In 1725, however, attracted by the renown of 

 Boerhaave he moved to Leyden ; and there undoubtedly he 

 laid the foundation of all his future work. At that time 

 Boerhaave was in the fulness of his power, the ripeness of his 

 experience adding more than might seem to be lost through 

 the declining energy of advancing years ; and he had now by 

 his side the younger Albinus, Frederick Bernard Albinus, an 

 accomplished and sagacious anatomist, who later on, in 1745, 

 became Professor of Anatomy. Under these influences the 

 young Haller not only made rapid progress, but also had his 

 versatile mind fixed in its proper direction. Taking in 1727 

 his degree as Doctor of Medicine at Leyden, upon a thesis in 

 which he exposed the error of Coschwitz, professor at Halle, 

 who had maintained that he had discovered a new duct of the 

 submaxillary and sublingual glands, Haller spent some time in 

 foreign travel. He visited Belgium, England, where he became 

 the friend of Sir Hans Sloane, and France, and in 1728 took 

 up for a while his abode at Basel, studying under the celebrated 

 mathematican John Bernouilli, and beginning to devote his 

 attention to systematic botany, at which he continued at 

 intervals to labour all his life. 



In 17.30 he returned to his native city; and here for a while 

 he taught anatomy and practised medicine, prosecuting all the 

 while anatomical and physiological researches and spending his 

 leisure hours partly in botanical explorations, partly in composing 

 poems. 



In 1736, the fame of him as a rising man had grown so 

 great and spread so far that George II. of England, as Elector 



