BONNET AND HALLER 413 



were probably not favourably impressed by such versatility in 

 a family doctor. The publication of his verses, including a local 

 satire, can hardly have conduced to his professional prospects. 

 He had, however, won reputation outside his own town and 

 country. In 1736 he made a second tour in the Alps, which in- 

 cluded the more famous sites of the Bernese Oberland. An un- 

 expected Deus ex machind now appeared in George the Second, 

 King of Hanover and Great Britain. The young University of 

 Gottingen needed a Professor of Botany, Medicine, and Anatomy. 

 They asked much of professors in the eighteenth century ! Haller 

 was offered and accepted the post. Misfortune at first attended 

 his change of residence his wife died from the effects of a carriage 

 accident in the ill-paved streets of Gottingen. She was the first 

 of three wives to two of whom he wrote memorial verses shortly 

 after their death ; the third evaded this tribute by surviving him. 

 But the success of his teaching was great, and his many scien- 

 tific treatises earned him a widespread reputation. The learned 

 societies of Europe hurried to enrol him in their lists . The Royal 

 Society elected him in 1751, and three years later he won the blue 

 ribbon of science by becoming one of the Foreign Members of the 

 French Academy. Kings competed for his services ; Frederick 

 the Great clamoured for him. He wrote in 1749 to the president 

 of the Berlin Academy : ' Haller is the best physiologist in Europe, 

 the greatest botanist in Germany, and at the same time a man of 

 genius. I give you carte blanche for Haller. Kings are too happy 

 when they can get for a little money what all the diamonds in 

 the world cannot purchase.' 



Berne had now, after nine years, begun to realise the merits 

 of her absent son, and Haller was no longer without honour 

 in his own country. In 1745 he was given a seat on the 

 local Council of Two Hundred, and eight years later a magis- 

 tracy falling to him by lot, and his health somewhat failing, 

 he could not resist the impulse to return to his native air and 

 surroundings. At Berne he found administrative and political 

 employment of various kinds. Ill-luck, coupled with some party 

 prejudice, still hindered him from obtaining the rank of senator. 

 But he received the agreeable post of Director of the salt mines 

 of Bex, which he held for six years, adding to it for two years 

 that of Bailli of Aigle, near the mouth of the Rhone valley. It 



