106 CONRAD GESNER. 



ance from the canons of Zurich^ he betook himself to 

 Bourges, where he commenced the study of medi- 

 cine. At the age of eighteen, he had occasion to go 

 to PariSj where he indulged to excess his literary 

 appetite, and devoured indiscriminately all kinds of 

 knowledge; being supported meanwhile by a young 

 Bernese nobleman, named Steiger, who had contract- 

 ed a friendship for him. Soon after, he returned to 

 Strasburg, whence, in 1536, he was recalled to Zurich, 

 to teach some children the elements of grammar, with 

 a salary barely sufficient for his support. In the fol- 

 lowing year, the magistrates, perceiving the supe- 

 riority of his character, furnished him with an ad- 

 ditional grant of money, which enabled him to go to 

 Basil to prosecute his medical studies. To increase 

 his income he assisted Phavorinus in editing his 

 Lexicon, and in a short time removed to Lausanne, 

 where the senate of Berne appointed him Greek 

 professor, in which office he continued three years. 

 He then went to Montpellier, where he engaged 

 more particularly in the study of anatomy and 

 botany, and formed an intimate acquaintance with 

 the celebrated Laurent Joubert and the naturalist 

 Rondelet. In 1541, he obtained the degree of doc- 

 tor in medicine at Basil, where he arranged some 

 extracts respecting botany and physic, taken from 

 Greek and Arabian writers, which were published 

 the following year at Zurich and Lyons ; in the for- 

 mer of which places he now took up his residence and 

 engaged in professional practice. Soon afterwards, 

 he published a catalogue of plants in four languages, 

 in which he evinced his extensive knowledge of 

 botany, which was subsequently increased by se- 

 veral excursions among the Alps. In 1545, he 



