656 PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS, [aNNO 1742-3. 



dium F'irium Medicarum, dubiarum Deciaratio, novarum et rariorum uberior 



Historia et Jcones conlinenlur . Gottingice, 1742, 2 torn, folio, abstracted 



from the Latin. By William Watson, F. R. S. N° 468, p. 369. 



This work is so well known to botanists in every part of Europe, that to reprint 



Mr. Watson's account of it now cannot be necessary. It will suffice to insert 



the tabular view of this celebrated author's Methodus Plantarum. 



topics), displayed a vastness of conception, a strength of reasoning, a solidity of judgment, rarely 

 equalled. Many instances of persons celebrated for universality of knowledge are recorded by bio- 

 graphical writers ; but Haller may be considered as almost the only instance, where, to the most ex- 

 tensive erudition, and the most unwearied assiduity, in acquiring and in teaching science, there was, 

 at the same time, joined the finest originality of genius. This is evinced by his poetical composi- 

 tions, by his botanical classifications and descriptions, and more than all by his physiological experi- 

 ments and inquiries. 



It was at Berne that Albert Haller was bom in 1708. Here his father practised as an advocate, 

 designing his son for the same profession; but after devoting some years to the pursuit of general 

 literature, young Haller made choice of the medical profession ; to qualify himself for which, he 

 went first to Tubingen, and afterwards to Leyden; where Boerhaave and Albinus taught. In 1726, 

 he took his degree of M. D., and the year following he visited England, and afterwards Paris, where 

 the botanical and anatomical chairs were at that time filled by very able professors. He returned to 

 Berne in 1729, having previously spont some time at Basle, where, while he received instructions in 

 mathematics from John Bernoulli, and in the practice of physic from Tzinger, he officiated as a teacher 

 of anatomy, being at one and the same time both a pupil and a professor. In 1736", he accepted the 

 professorship of physic, surgery, and botany, at Gottiiigen. This situation he filled for 17 years, 

 during which, not only by his lectures, but also by numerous useful institutions, which he caused to 

 be set on foot, he brought that newly-established university into great repute. Not long after the 

 period last mentioned, Haller began to distinguish himself as an author, by various publications, the 

 principal of which will shortly be noticed. In 1753, he resigned his professorship at Gotlingen, and 

 once more took up his abode in his native city, where he became a member of the government, and 

 performed the fiinctions of a magistrate and a statesman, with as much credit to himself, and advantage 

 to the public, as he had performed those of a university teacher. In the intervals of retirement from 

 his magisterial and political engagements, he prosecuted his inquiries in general philosophy and medi- 

 cal sciences j and in particular put a finishing hand to his great and unrivalled work, entitled Elemen- 

 ta Physiologiae ; the materials for which he had been collecting and accumulating for a series of years. 

 For some years preceding his death, his health and spirits had been much impaired ; but his intellec- 

 tual powers appeared undiminished even to a very advanced age ; insomuch, that he continued to cor- 

 respond with M. Bonnet on literary and scientific subjects, till within a very short time previous to his 

 death, which happened in 1777, when he was in his 70th year. 



Passing over his miscellaneous compositions (including his poetry, and some critical and philoso- 

 phical tracts), we shall only mention his principal works relating to anatomy and |)hysiology; for his 

 great botanical work has been already noticed in the text, to which the present observations are an- 

 nexed. Among his most valuable labours in anatomy, may be mentioned his Icones Anatomicae, 

 amounting to many folio fasciculi, and chiefly exhibiting accurate delineations of the arteries of dif- 

 ferent parts of the human body. Add to these, a number of anatomical tracts, first published sepa- 

 rately, and afterwards collectively, under the title of Opuscula, Dissertationes Selectie et Opera Mi- 

 nora. Besides the text book, entitled Primae Lineae Physiologiae, and his great work entitled Elementa 

 Physiologiae, in 8 vols. 4to. he also published a number of separate tracts, (some of which have been 

 reprinted collectively with the anatomical disputations before mentioned) on physiological subjects ; 

 such as Meraoires sur les Partes sensibles et irritables ; Memoires sur la Formation du coeur dans le 

 Poulet ; Memoires sur la Formation des Os ; Memoires sur la Respiration, &c. of all which an ac- 

 count is given by the author himself, in the 2d vol. of his Bibliotheca Anatoniica. Besides these, and 

 other works wholly of his own composition, (such ashisBibliothecaChirurgica, Bib.Med. Bib. Botanica, 

 &c.) he was editor, with large annotations, of Boerhaave's Prilectiones; of Boerhaave's Methodus Studii 

 Medici ; of Hippocratis Opera ; Celsi Opera, &c. To enumerate all the works of Haller would require 

 a great number of pages ; but the above imperfect list will suffice to show how largely he contributed 

 to the ad yancement of medical science, and particularly of anatomy and physiology. 



