NATURAL HISTORY OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENT. 403 



FIG. 185. ALEXANDER BRONGNIART. 



mists who ever lived, and was also distinguished by the achievements 

 of his literary industry. He was born in Berne, and his childhood is 

 remarkable for the precocity of the talents it displayed. At four years 

 of age he not only was able to read the Bible, but was in the habit of 

 expounding it for the benefit of the servants in his father's house. At 

 nine years of age he wrote Greek, and while still a boy he was in- 

 structed in anatomy by attending the lectures of an eminent professor. 

 Having selected medicine as his profession, he was attracted to Leyden 

 by the celebrity which Boerhaave and Albinus had conferred on that 

 university. Leaving Leyden, he lived for some time in the house of 

 a skilful anatomist in London. Paris was the next place he visited, 

 and here he placed himself under the most celebrated anatomists, and 

 also took pains to obtain the best instruction in other branches of 

 knowledge. Haller, after holding various academical appointments at 



262 



